Sandstone universities

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In Australia, the term "sandstone university" is used to refer to an informally-defined group comprising the country's oldest tertiary institutions. All of the universities included in the group have buildings constructed primarily of sandstone. Membership of the group is based on age before building material, however; some universities, such as Bond University, a private institution, have sandstone buildings but are not considered sandstone universities (cf Red brick universities in the UK, which are based on a similar notion)

The label "sandstone university" is not synonymous with membership of the Group of Eight which includes ANU, Monash and UNSW but not UTAS. Nevertheless, the connotations (prestige, a focus on research, and curricula that have a strong emphasis on theory rather than practice) are much the same for the two groups.

Sandstone Universities can be taken to be either universities founded before World War II, or the oldest university in their respective state. Under either criterion, the sandstone universities are:

• The University of Sydney
• The University of Melbourne
• The University of Tasmania
• The University of Adelaide
• The University of Queensland
• The University of Western Australia.