Griffith University

Griffith University
Motto	Know more. Do more.
Established	1971
Type	Public university
Chancellor	Leneen Forde AC
Vice-Chancellor	Ian O'Connor
Deputy V-C	Ned Pankhurst (research); Sue Spence (academic)
Admin. staff	4,000 FTE
Students	Over 43,000
Undergraduates	Over 31,000
Postgraduates	Over 6,000
Location	Gold Coast and Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Affiliations	ASAIHL
Website	griffith.edu.au

Griffith University is a public research university in the southeastern region of the Australian state of Queensland. The university has five campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank. Current total enrolment is approximately 43,000 with 4,000 full-time equivalent staff. Griffith University offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees across ten discipline areas including Arts, Education, Business, Health, Law, Engineering, Information Technology, Environment, Music and Visual Arts.

History

Establishment

In 1965, 174 hectares (430 acres) of natural bushland at Nathan were set aside for a new campus. Initially the site was to be part of the University of Queensland which was experiencing strong demand in humanities and social sciences. By 1970, a new institution was being mooted. The university was formally founded in 1971 and opened its doors in 1975 to 451 students in four schools: Australian Environmental Studies, Humanities, Modern Asian Studies and Science. The University started with its Nathan campus, and several of its campuses are distinctive for their nature based settings within large urban agglomerations. Buildings were designed to fit into the environment by following the slope of the land and by using architectural means of cooling. The library building was designed by Robin Gibson and won the first national award for library design. The clusters of buildings, sports facilities, bushland reserves and recreational areas are connected by integrated networks of walking paths. The university was distinguished by its 'problem-based' rather than disciplinary approach to course design and research. The university now has a full suite of programs including arts, education, medicine, dentistry, engineering, business, science, and law. The University is named after the former Premier of Queensland, and High Court of Australia justice, Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, who was also the principal author of the Australian constitution.

Campus

Griffith University has five campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank.

Nathan

Griffith University (Nathan Campus) from Stadium Path

The Nathan Campus was designed by prominent Australian architect Robin Gibson and was the founding campus of the University.

Gold Coast

Set amongst native bushland this campus plays host to over 16,500 students from all over Australia and the world. Griffith's Gold Coast Campus facilities include the $136 million Griffith Centre for Medicine and Oral Health adjacent to the Gold Coast Hospital at Southport which contains lecture theatres, cadaver labs, pathology labs and a dental clinic which serves the public. Building has commenced for a teaching hospital, a new University Hospital at the Gold Coast campus, which is due to open in 2013 and will replace most functions of the Centre for Medicine and Oral Health. The Gold Coast campus also boasts the new Griffith Health Centre, a $150 million investment that will operate in tandem with the new 750-bed University Hospital. All Griffith Health programs on the Gold Coast will be together on the one campus with the schools of medicine, psychology, dentistry and oral health to be brought together under its roof. Health students at the Centre will also have hands-on experience with the delivery of community services like physiotherapy, audiology and oral and dental care delivered from the Parklands setting, alongside the new University Hospital. The Mount Gravatt and Gold Coast campuses are also home to the Queensland Institute of Business and Technology.

Logan

Logan campus is home to more than 2500 students. Logan Campus offers accelerated degree programs in Business and, Information and Communication Technology.

South Bank

The South Bank campus is home to the Queensland Conservatorium and the Queensland College of Art.

Mount Gravatt

Griffith University busway station on the South East Busway

The Mount Gravatt and Gold Coast campuses are also home to the Queensland Institute of Business and Technology.

Academic profile

University rankings
National
Global
ARWU	301–400
QS	346
Times	351–400

In 2013 the Australian Education Network, ranked Griffith University as 16th out of the 29 universities in Australia, with a 20% proportion of excellence rating, out of 100%. The QS World University Rankings places Griffith in 291st universities in the world, ranked 26th out of the 32 Australian universities included in the Rankings. It was ranked 200th in Social Sciences, 268th in Arts and Humanities and ranked 256th in the world according to Global University Rankings 2009. Griffith ranked sixth in the world for Tourism Research contributions. Griffith is ranked 2nd by getCITED’s Top 10 Institutions by Publications in Sports Marketing Journals over the past 3 years (2005) and 1st by getCITED’s Top 10 Institutions by Publications in Sports Management Journals over the past 3 years(2005). The prestigious QS World University Rankings places Griffith in the top 368 universities in the world, which means the University is in the top 5% of universities in the world, as at 8 October 2012, ranked 20th out of the 26 Australian Universities included in the rankings.

Griffith Business School is recognised by the Aspen Institute's ‘Top 100’ for its leadership in integrating social, environmental and ethical issues into its programs. It was the highest Australian ranking. Its Business program has been ranked 5th (out of 25 universities) in Australia and among top 100 in the world by Times Higher Education in 2009. Its Accounting research has been ranked 7th (out of 37 universities) in Australia and in the top 100 in the world. The ranking, published in the Accounting and Finance, was based on the top 24 accounting journals internationally and ranked Griffith 72nd out of more than 1,000 institutions in the world.

Griffith Law School has been ranked as No. 1 in the country by the respected publication, the "Good Universities Guide", both in 2005 and 2006. The Griffith MBA received a five star rating for the seventh consecutive year from the Graduate Management Association of Australia. Griffith is only one of two universities nationally to achieve this feat and the International MBA program also received five stars in only its second year.

Colleges and schools

Faculties, Schools and Centres

• Business and Commerce
  • Griffith Business School

Griffith Business School has international accreditation from AACSB International, making it part of an elite group that makes up less than 5 percent of the world’s business schools.

• Education
  • School of Education and Professional Studies (Brisbane, Logan)
  • School of Education and Professional Studies (Gold Coast)
• Engineering and Information Technology
  • School of Information and Communication Technology
  • Griffith School of Engineering
• Environment, Planning and Architecture
  • Griffith School of Environment

Home to the Queensland Sports Technology Cluster at the Nathan Campus. An Electronic Sports Engineering degree was introduced in 2009 as a world first.

• Health
  • Dentistry and Oral Health
  • Human Services and Social Work
  • Medical Science
  • Medicine
  • Nursing and Midwifery
  • Pharmacy
  • Physiotherapy and Exercise Science
  • Psychology
  • Public Health
• Humanities, Languages and Criminology
  • School of Humanities
  • School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
  • School of Languages and Linguistics
• Law
  • Griffith Law School
• Music
  • Queensland Conservatorium of Music
• Science and Aviation
  • School of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences
• Visual and Creative Arts
  • Queensland College of Art
  • Griffith Film School

Independent academic centres, institutes and colleges

• Centres
  • Centre for Environment and Population Health
  • Centre for Financial Independence and Education
  • Continuing Professional Learning Enterprise
  • EcoCentre
  • Multi-Faith Centre
  • Queensland Centre for Public Health (Griffith Node)
• Institutes
  • Griffith English Language Institute
  • Griffith Institute for Higher Education
• Colleges
  • Griffith Honours College
  • Griffith Sports College
• Units
  • Gumurrii Student Support Unit
  • Unit for Italian Studies

Research

Externally Supported Centres and Facilities

• ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security
• National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility
• Smart Water Research Centre

Collaborations with External Research Institutions

• Griffith Medical Research College

Arts, Education and Law

• Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture
• Early Childhood Education Centre
• Griffith Centre for Cultural Research
• Griffith Institute for Educational Research
• Griffith Institute for Social and Behavioural Research
• Griffith Islamic Research Unit
• Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law
• Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance
• Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre
• Socio-Legal Research Centre

Business

• Centre for Governance and Public Policy
• Centre for Tourism, Sport and Service Innovation
• Centre for Work, Organisation and Well Being
• Griffith Asia Institute

Health

• Griffith Health Institute
• Behavioural Basis of Health
• Research Centre for Clinical and Community Practice Innovation
• Heart Foundation Research Centre
• Molecular Basis of Disease
• Population Health
• Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention

Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology

• Atmospheric Environment Research Centre
• Aviation
• Australian Rivers Institute
• Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Management
• Centre for Quantum Dynamics
• Centre for Wireless Monitoring and Applications
• Environmental Futures Centre
• Eskitis Institute for Drug Discovery
• Forensic Science Research and Innovation Centre
• Griffith Centre for Coastal Management
• Griffith University DNA Sequencing Facility
• International Centre for Ecotourism Research
• Institute for Glycomics
• Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems
• International Centre for Management of Pest Fruit Flies
• Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre
• Software Quality Institute
• Urban Research Program

Griffith University also co-supports the national information and communication technology research centre (NICTA), and is the host of the Sports engineering group, Queensland Sports Technology Cluster

Student life

Student organisations

Griffith University has a wide array of cultural, intellectual, sporting and social groups. Its Student Guild is an organisation within the university which takes care of these clubs on the Gold Coast campus, as well as student issues, accommodation, employment, publication, events, sport and recreation. On the Nathan campus, Campus Life supports many clubs including the long running GRUBS (Griffith University Bushwalking Club), The Karate and Kickboxing club and the Griffith University Aikido Club, recently incorporated and became independent of the University.

Griffith University students are uniquely represented by two statutory embedded student organisations. The Griffith University Student Representative Council (GUSRC) represents undergraduate students and the Griffith University Postgraduate Students Association (GUPSA) represents post-graduate students in all campuses apart from the Gold Coast. GUPSA is a constituent member of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations. Unique to the Gold Coast is the Student Guild (GUSG) which represents all students from this campus and holds an administrative structure that is apparently independent to the university.

Athletics

The Griffith University Rugby Union Club, established by Phil Verheijen in 2002, was runner up in the Northern University Games in 2005 and is consistently ranked in the top 6 at Australian University Games. Past captains include Nick Hurrell (2006), who is now an international rugby representative of Hong Kong.

Besides competing in the University Games, the Griffith University Australian Football Club (GUAFC), an Australian rules football club formed in 2001, also competes in the AFLQ State Association. The Griffith University Gladiators finished runners up in two of their first five seasons in the AFLSQ. The club plays out of Griffith's Nathan Campus, which features one of Queensland's leading amateur Australian football grounds with state-of-the-art playing lights and club rooms.^{[citation needed]}

Notable people

Andrew Fraser, former deputy premier and treasurer of Queensland and Griffith alumni

See also: Category:Griffith University alumni

Many alumni are politically active. Four alumni, Justine Elliot, Gary Hardgrave, Julie Owens (studied at Queensland Conservatorium of Music), Ross Vasta, serve in the Federal Parliament; Elliot is also the Parliamentary Secretary for Trade. Alumnus Brett Mason serves in the Australian Senate for Queensland. Five alumni, Aidan McLindon, Phil Reeves, Peta-Kaye Croft, Judy Spence and Andrew Fraser, serve in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland; Fraser was also the 35th deputy premier and 58th treasurer of Queensland. The current Opposition Leader Brisbane City Council, Shayne Sutton, is also alumni.

Prominent journalists include Liz Cantor, who is a Seven News personality and winner of the fifth season of The Mole. Kieran Ricketts is a reporter for the ABC's news/comedy program Hungry Beast. Karen Tso is also a television journalist alumni. In the arts realm, Lucy Decoutere (actress in the Trailer Park Boys), Jeong Ryeo-won, (singer, actress) and Robert Warren (musician) headline the list. Writer David Vernon, as well as photographer Adam Ferguson, are both alumni, as are models Amanda Ware, and Paulina Porizkova (study abroad 1982). In 2011, filmmaker Peter Hegedus was awarded the Griffith University Alumni Recognition Award for his achievements in documentary filmmaking. In 2012, Medicine Undergraduate Jakub Bilski received the National Award of Medical Achievement, playing a role in legislation implementation and minor consulting from a students perspective.

Griffith athletes have starred in professional sports and Olympics. Gold Medal Olympians include speed skater Steven Bradbury, cyclist Sara Carrigan, and swimmer Libby Lenton. Other Griffith alumni include artist and political activist Van Thanh Rudd, preacher and motivational speaker Nick Vujicic, educationist James Smith Page, engineer and entrepreneur Rajnesh Singh, and birth activist Barbara Vernon.

See also

• List of universities in Australia

External links

• Australian university rankings
• Griffith University Website
• Griffith University Village