University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, UQ, is an Australian research university primarily located in Queensland's capital city, Brisbane. UQ is a sandstone university consistently ranked among the top in all international university rankings.
Founded in 1909, UQ is one of Australia's oldest and most selective universities (excluding full fee paying international student entry requirements). The main campus is located in the inner suburb of St Lucia, southwest of the Brisbane central business district, with other UQ campuses in Gatton, Herston and the UQ Ochsner Medical Center's clinical school in New Orleans, United States. The University of Queensland is a member of the Australia's research-intensive Group of Eight, the global network of research universities Universitas 21, and a contributing charter member of EdX, an online higher education consortium led by Harvard and MIT.
Recent research achievements at UQ include pioneering the cervical cancer vaccine invention, and development of high-performance superconducting MRI magnets for portable scanning of human limbs. UQ has produced numerous distinguished alumni across a wide range of professions. Several notable examples include a Nobel laureate in physiology and medicine, a recipient of the "Triple Crown of Acting" (having won Primetime Emmy, Tony and Academy Awards), a triple Grammy award winner, CEOs of two Fortune Global 500 company, the first female Governor General of Australia, two chief justices of Australia, a consecutive Olympic gold medal winner, the Principal of King's College London, the President of Indiana University and Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco.
Proposals for a university in Queensland began in the 1870s. A Royal Commission in 1874, chaired by Sir Charles Lilley, recommended the immediate establishment of a university. Those against a university argued that technical rather than academic education was more important in an economy dominated by primary industry. Those in favour of the university, in the face of this opposition, distanced themselves from Oxford University and Cambridge University and proposed instead a model derived from the mid-western states of the USA. A second Royal Commission in 1891 recommended the inclusion of five faculties in a new university; Arts, Law, Medicine, Science and Applied Science. Education generally was given a low priority in Queensland's budgets, and in a colony with a literacy rate of 57% in 1861, primary education was the first concern well ahead of secondary and technical education. The government, despite the findings of the Royal Commissions, was unwilling to commit funds to the establishment of a university.
In 1893 the Queensland University Extension Movement was begun by a group of private individuals who organised public lecture courses in adult education, hoping to excite wider community support for a university in Queensland. In 1894, 245 students were enrolled in the extension classes and the lectures were described as practical and useful. In 1906 the University Extension Movement staged the University Congress, a forum for interested delegates to promote the idea of a university. Opinion was mobilised, a fund was started and a draft Bill for a Queensland University was prepared. Stress was laid on the practical aspects of university education and its importance for the commerce of Queensland. The proceedings of the Congress were forwarded to Queensland Premier William Kidston. In October 1906, sixty acres in Victoria Park were gazetted for university purposes.
The University of Queensland was established by an Act of State Parliament on 10 December 1909 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Queensland's separation from the colony of New South Wales. The Act allowed for the university to be governed by a senate of 20 men and Sir William MacGregor, the incoming Governor, was appointed the first chancellor with Reginald Heber Roe as the vice chancellor. Government House (now Old Government House) in George Street was set aside for the University following the departure of the Governor to the Bardon residence Fernberg, sparking the first debates about the best location for the university.
In 1910 the first teaching faculties were created. These included Engineering, Classics, Mathematics and Chemistry. In December of the same year, the Senate appointed the first four professors; Bertram Dillon Steele in chemistry, John Lundie Michie in classics, Henry James Priestley in mathematics and Alexander James Gibson in engineering. In 1911 the first students enrolled. The University's first classes in the Government house were held in 1911 with 83 commencing students and Sir William MacGregor is the first chancellor (with Reginald Heber Roe as vice-chancellor). The development of the University was delayed by World War I, but after the first world war the university enrollments for education and research took flight as demand for higher education increased in Australia. Thus, in the early 1920s the growing University had to look for a more spacious campus as its original site at George Street, Brisbane has limited room for expansion.
In 1927, Dr James O'Neil Mayne and his sister Mary Emelia Mayne, provided a grant of approximately £50,000 to the Brisbane City Council to acquire 274 acres (111 ha) of land at St Lucia and provided it to the University of Queensland as its permanent home. In the same year, the pitch drop experiment was started by Professor Thomas Parnell. The experiment has been described as the world's oldest and continues to this day. Lack of finance delayed development of the St Lucia campus. Hence, the construction of the University's first building in St Lucia only began in 1938. It was later named the Forgan Smith Building, after the Premier of the day and it was completed in 1939. During World War II, the Forgan Smith Building was used as a military base and it served first as advanced headquarters for the Allied Land Forces in the South West Pacific.
In 1990, Australia reorganised its higher education system by abolishing the binary system of universities and colleges of advanced education. Under this transition, the University merged with Queensland Agricultural College, to establish the new UQ Gatton campus. In 1999, UQ Ipswich began operation as one of the completely Web-enabled campuses in Australia.
The Ipswich campus was made up of nearly 20 buildings and more than 5001 students on nearly 25 hectares (62 acres). Courses offered included: arts, business, medicine and social sciences as well as Interaction design. It is located near central Ipswich, Queensland, just south of the CBD. Nearby landmarks include Limestone Park, Workshops Rail Museum and RAAF Base Amberley. The site dates back to 1878 with the opening of the Ipswich branch of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum. Operations continued until 1910 when it became the Ipswich Hospital for the Insane. In 1938 it was renamed the Ipswich Mental Hospital and in 1964 it was renamed again as the Ipswich Special Hospital. It was finally named the Challinor Centre in 1968 in honour of Dr. Henry Challinor, the ship's surgeon on the Fortitude. From 1968 to 1997 the Challinor Centre served as an institution for people with intellectual disabilities. In late 1997 the Challinor Centre began its first stage of transformation as the new UQ Ipswich campus. In 2014, UQ sold the Ipswich Campus to the University of Southern Queensland, believing that this regional teaching campus would be better utilised by USQ.
In May 2013, UQ joined edX, an international consortium of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Due to start in May 2014, the initial four UQx courses will cover hypersonics, tropical coastal ecosystems, biomedical imaging and the science of everyday thinking.
