University of Newcastle, Australia

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**University of Newcastle**

Motto	I look ahead
Established	1965
Type	Public
Chancellor	Professor Trevor Waring AM
Vice-Chancellor	Professor Nicholas Saunders
Staff	2187
Undergraduates	17073
Postgraduates	5754
Location	Newcastle, NSW, Australia (32°53′35″S, 151°42′7″E)
Campus	Newcastle (Callaghan), Newcastle CBD , Ourimbah, Port Macquarie
Organisations	IRU Australia
Website	www.newcastle.edu.au

The University of Newcastle is a public university located in Callaghan, a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales. It was established in 1965 and, is at the forefront of tertiary education in Australia being the largest and most diverse regional university in the country. It was founded as part of a newer generation of universities which intended to depart from the traditional methods of the older universities of Australia. As such, the university prides itself in its unique and challenging core educational programmes that are delivered through five faculties: Business and Law; Education and Arts; Engineering and Built Environment; Health; and Science and Information Technology.

The university enrols approximately 17,000 full-time students (including more than 14,600 undergraduates) and about 9,000 part-time students.

Historically, the university is known for its educational innovativity which is, in part, due to a sharpened nexus between teaching and research and, partly due to its willingness to implement novel models and modalities of teaching which was displayed, for example, in pioneering the PBL system for its undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine programme- a system later mandatorily implemented throughout Australia. The Centre for Teaching and Learning is facilitating and supporting the this pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning. 1

The University of Newcastle is a member of Innovative Research Universities Australia (IRU Australia).

1 Campuses
2 History
3 Autonomy Day
4 Student body and organisations
5 Athletics
6 Faculties and Schools
7 Notable Alumni
8 External links

[edit] Campuses

A walkway within the Callaghan Campus of the University

There are three main campuses, located at Callaghan, Ourimbah and Port Macquarie. Additional campuses are located in hospitals across the Hunter New England Health Service and Northern Sydney Central Coast Health regions. Of most prominence are the extensive student facilities at the John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, the University Department of Rural Health (UDRH) based at Tamworth Hospital, and the student areas of Gosford Hospital.

The largest campus at Callaghan sits on a 140 hectare, natural bushland site and has acquired a reputation for being one of the most beautiful natural campuses in Australia. It lies about 12 km from the centre of Newcastle. Some of its buildings have won national awards for architecture and sympathetic environmental management.

The University of Newcastle also has a presence on three sites within the Newcastle C.B.D. The School of Music and Conservatorium is located in the Civic Theatre precinct, the School of Law, Legal Centre, and Graduate School of Business are located in University House, and the Newcastle Institute of Public Health is located in the David Maddison Building on the site of the Royal Newcastle Hospital (though this is likely to change when development plans for the site are realised). University House is a landmark art-deco sandstone building directly opposite Civic Park.

[edit] History

The University has its origins in the Newcastle University College of the University of New South Wales, first established in 1951 at the site of Newcastle Technical College. After considerable agitation at the local level, the fully autonomous University of Newcastle was established in 1965. The student body annually celebrates the anniversary of the institution's independence on Autonomy Day.

[edit] Autonomy Day

The Medical Sciences Builiding

On the last Friday of July every year it is customary for the students to rise in the early hours of the morning (normally around 4:00 am) to begin partying with friends, this soon leads to all students meeting at the on-campus bar (around 8:00am) for a day of social activity. This event is always looked foward to by thousands of students at the university since it became autonomous from the University of New South Wales in 1965. Some of the more memorable Autonomy Day shenanigans are listed below.

1965: The planned procession down Hunter Street is not enough for some. About 100 students successfully invade Fort Scratchley, still an occupied military installation, and hold the fort for most of the day.

1966: A reverse scavenger hunt has students putting objects in difficult places around the city. A hitch-hiking race is held from Newcastle to Melbourne.

1968: The Lord Mayor of Newcastle is kidnapped for a ransom of $50 in a scavenger hunt that raises more than $800 for charity.

1971: 11 students arrested and 10 reprimanded for being in possession of stolen goods during the scavenger hunt. About 400 students try to drink two Wallsend pubs dry. The tradition is picked up by canny beer distributors, who use spies to ensure targeted pubs are amply stocked.

1976: Two buses are stolen in the scavenger hunt, with one later wedged under a footbridge, costing the Student Representative Council $3000 in fines and damages. There is also a report of an elephant being found in the Union car park. The scavenger hunt is cancelled and Autonomy Day celebrations go quiet for a few years.

1985: The scavenger hunt is revived. Local member Alan Morris is kidnapped and tied to a tree with a Hamburglar statue 'borrowed' from a nearby McDonald's. A billycart race is held from the Great Hall to the Union building.

1988: A reveller attempts a somersault off the roof of the Union building. He breaks his ankle.

1989: The same acrobat attempts the feat again. He breaks his other ankle.

2006: Riot police placed on standby as the university fears the few thousand strong student gathering may get out of hand.

[edit] Student body and organisations

The University has a student population of just over 26,000 (including part time students) as of 2006, including 4422 international students from more than 80 countries. Enrolment increased to almost 9% in 2005/2006 despite a national trend showing decreases in acceptance for university offers.

The university is widely recognised for its commitment to equity in education and consistently enrols more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders than any other Australian university. The university has also graduated more than 60% of the nation's indigenous doctors.

Students at the University are represented by the Newcastle University Students' Association (NUSA), the University of Newcastle Union Limited (UNU Ltd) and the Newcastle University Postgraduate Student Association (NUPSA).

The UNU is responsible for the social life of the university, as well as most of the commercial facilities on campus. It organises all the main entertainment events, usually performed at the University's two licensed venues, the Bar on the Hill and the Tanner Bar. Apart from (formerly compulsory) student contribitions, the UNU generates significant income from the stores, restaurants and bars on campus.

NUSA and NUPSA are primarily advocacy organisations, representing students on a variety of issues from political activism to the internal organisation of the University. NUSA also produces Opus, the University's magazine written by and for students. Both these organisations have no commercial interests and are expected to come under significant strain when the effects of Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) become apparent.

[edit] Athletics

The Forum Sports and Acquatic Centre lies within Callaghan campus grounds and has state-of-the-art sporting facilities including and Olympic-sized swimming pool and one of the highest climbing walls in the country. It is the site of training for many international and national teams including the Sydney Swans AFL team and the Newcastle Knights Rugby League team.

The university itself counts some prominent athletes among its student cohort. In the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Newcastle's students won 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal which places it at 15th place if it was entered as a country.

In 2005, more than 370 students competed at the Eastern University Games in Tamworth and, the Australian University Games in Brisbane winning a string of gold and silver medals cementing its place as one of the top universities in Australia for athletics.

The University of Newcastle is a member of the Elite Athlete Friendly Universities (EAFU) which supports elite atheletes by having a number of systems to ensure that there is sufficient flexibility to create a supportive environment conducive to the achievement of academic excellence.

[edit] Faculties and Schools

The University has five faculties covering a wide range of available programs. The faculties are Business and Law, Education and Arts, Engineering and the Built Environment, Science and Information Technology, and Health.

[edit] Faculty of Business and Law

The Faculty of Business and Law contains the following schools:

[edit] Faculty of Education and Arts

The Faculty of Education and Arts contains the following schools:

Wollotuka School of Aboriginal Studies
School of Drama, Fine Art & Music (incorporating the Conservatorium)
School of Education
School of Humanities and Social Science

[edit] Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment contains the following schools:

[edit] Faculty of Science and Information Technology

The Faculty of Science and Information Technology contains the following schools:

[edit] Faculty of Health

The Faculty of Health is the most comprehensive of its kind in Australia and one of the most comprehensive in the world. It contains the following schools:

School of Biomedical Sciences
School of Health Sciences
School of Medicine and Public Health (the home of the University's world renowned Bachelor of Medicine program, one of the leaders in Australian medical education)
School of Nursing and Midwifery

The Ourimbah Campus is an innovative model where services and infrastructure are shared between education providers. The partnership titled The Central Coast Campuses is a partnership of:

The University of Newcastle
TAFE-NSW - Hunter Institute
Central Coast Community College
affiliated with the Central Coast Conservatorium of Music

[edit] Notable Alumni

David Berthold, prominent Australian theatre director.
Jonathan Biggins, Australian actor, singer, writer and comedian.
John Doyle, Australian actor, broadcaster and comedian, better known as Rampaging Roy Slaven, one half of broadcasting duo Roy and HG with Greig Pickhaver.
Professor Sandra Eades, Australia's first Aboriginal medical practitioner and researcher to be awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy, and NSW Woman of the Year for 2006.
Cheryl Kernot, former Australian Democrats leader and Australian Labor Party MP
Associate Professor Ian Kerridge, clinical medical ethicist and member of the Lockhart Review Committee on Australia's laws on stem-cell research.
Mikey Robins, Australian comedian and television personality.
Janeen Webb, author and critic.