Flinders University



Flinders University, (The Flinders University of South Australia), is a public university in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in the early 19th century.

The university has established a reputation as a leading research institution with a devotion to innovation. It is a member of the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) Group and ranks among the leading universities in Australia. Academically, the university pioneered a cross-disciplinary approach to education, and its faculties of medicine and the humanities are ranked among the nation's top 10. It is also ranked within the world's top 400 institutions in both Times Higher Education and the Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Origins and construction
In the late 1950s, with the growth of population in South Australia and the University of Adelaide's North Terrace campus reaching full capacity, the need for a second South Australian university was identified. In 1960, Premier Thomas Playford announced that 150 ha of state government-owned land in Burford (now Bedford Park) would be allocated to the University of Adelaide for the establishment of a second campus.

Planning began in 1961. The principal-designate of the new campus, economist and professor Peter Karmel, was adamant that the new campus should operate independently from the North Terrace campus. He hoped that the Bedford Park campus would be free to innovate and not be bound by tradition.

Capital works began in 1962 with a grant of ₤3.8 million from the Australian Universities Commission. Architect Geoff Harrison, in conjunction with architectural firm Hassell, McConnell and Partners, designed a new university that, with future expansions, could eventually accommodate up to 6000 students.

Independence and opening
In 1965, the Australian Labor Party won the state election and Frank Walsh became premier. The ALP wished to break up the University of Adelaide's hegemony over tertiary education in the state, and announced that they intended the Bedford Park campus to be an independent institution.

On 17 March 1966, a bill was passed by state parliament officially creating the Flinders University of South Australia. Although the Labor Party had favoured the name "University of South Australia", academic staff wished that the university be named after a "distinguished but uncontroversial" person. They settled upon British navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in 1802. Its coat of arms, designed by a professor in the Fine Arts faculty, includes a reproduction of Flinders' ship Investigator and his journal A Voyage to Terra Australis, open to the page in which Flinders described the coast adjacent the campus site.

Flinders University was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on 25 March 1966. Peter Karmel was the first Vice-Chancellor and Sir Mark Mitchell the first Chancellor. The university began classes on 1 July 1966 with a student enrollment of 400.

A significant early initiative was the decision to build the Flinders Medical Centre on land adjacent to the campus and to base the university's Medical School within this new public hospital - the first such integration in Australia. Flinders first accepted undergraduate medical students in 1974, with FMC being opened the following year.

Expansion and restructuring
In 1990, the biggest building project on campus since the mid-1970s saw work commence on three new buildings - Law and Commerce; Engineering; and Information Science and Technology. Approval for the establishment of a School of Engineering was given in 1991 and degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Biomedical Engineering were established shortly afterwards.

In 1991, as part of a restructuring of higher education in South Australia, Flinders merged with the adjacent Sturt Campus of the former South Australian College of Advanced Education. In 1992 the present four-faculty structure was adopted with only a minor change to the School structure made in 2011.

In 1998, the Centre for Remote Health, a rural teaching hospital based in Alice Springs, was established jointly with the Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University). This was expanded further in 2011 with the establishment of the Northern Territory Medical Program.

In the past few years the University has grown substantially, establishing new disciplines in a number of areas including Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and more disciplines of Engineering.

Campuses
The university maintains a number of external teaching facilities in regional South Australia, south-west Victoria and the Northern Territory. International students make up 10% of the on-campus student population and a number of offshore programmes are also offered, primarily in the Asia-Pacific region.

Organisation
Flinders University offers more than 160 undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as higher degree research supervision across all disciplines. Many courses use new information and communication technologies to supplement face-to-face teaching and provide flexible options.

Faculties and schools

 * Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law
 * School of Education
 * School of Humanities
 * Flinders Law School
 * Faculty of Health Sciences
 * School of Medicine
 * School of Nursing and Midwifery
 * Faculty of Science and Engineering
 * School of Biological Sciences
 * School of Chemical and Physical Sciences
 * School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics
 * School of the Environment
 * Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
 * Flinders Business School
 * School of Psychology
 * School of International Studies
 * School of Social and Policy Studies

Affiliates

 * Australian Science and Mathematics School
 * Flinders Medical Centre
 * The Adelaide Theological Centre Inc (comprising the Catholic Theological College and the Uniting College for Leadership and Theology replacing the Adelaide College of Divinity)
 * Helpmann Academy

Housing
Flinders is the only South Australian university with on-campus accommodation in the Adelaide metropolitan area. There are two options:
 * University Hall (catered)
 * Deirdre Jordan Village (self-catered).

For off-campus accommodation, Flinders Housing run a free, up-to-date accommodation service which lists private accommodation available on the rental market.

Media
The Empire Times was published by the Students' Association of Flinders University (SAFU) from 1969 to 2006. The founder and first editor of the newspaper was Martin Fabinyi, and the newspaper was originally printed in the back of his house by fellow student Rod Boswell. Empire Times had a history of controversial humour and anti-establishment discussion. Notable former editors and contributors included Martin Armiger and Greg (HG Nelson) Pickhaver, Steph Key and Kate Ellis. Empire Times ceased publication in 2006 as a result of voluntary student unionism.

The newly formed student organisation, Flinders One, launched Libertine Magazine in 2008. It was published quarterly at the beginning of each term. Libertine was contributed to by students across the Flinders community and features articles, a feature artist, columns, creative writing, and a rant in each edition. It was partially funded by outside advertising, which was liaised through Flinders One. The magazine was distributed throughout campuses, and was a space for student creativity and voice.

Libertine Magazine finished printing at the end of 2011 after the 2011 Student Council decided to revamp it. A new form of publication will be investigated and launched in 2012. The Student Council particularly want to bring back the student voice of the magazine after Libertine lost popularity. While a few thousand copies were printed each quarter, only a couple dozen were ever picked up by students on campus.

A Media Group has been established by the Student Council and will propose a new form of media to the student council. After the SSAF passed in 2012, more money should be available for Student Media.

Sports
Flinders University has many sports teams that compete in social and competitive competitions. Flinders University also fields a baseball side in the Division 5 and Division 6 levels of the South Australian Baseball League.

Distinguished alumni and persons

 * Philip Bourne (1953-), professor of pharmacology at UCSD
 * Rodney Brooks (1954-), professor of robotics at MIT
 * Kate Ellis (1977-), Australian federal politician and minister
 * Noni Hazlehurst (1953-), actress
 * Scott Hicks (1953-), film director
 * Caleb Lewis (1978-), playwright
 * Mohammad Kaykobad, (1954-), Computer Scientist, Professor of CSE, BUET
 * Sam Mac, radio and television personality
 * Mamoru Mohri (1948-), retired astronaut, scientist and engineer
 * Brendan Nelson (1958-), former Australian federal politician and minister
 * Greig Pickhaver (also known as H.G. Nelson), actor, comedian and writer
 * Mike Rann, former Premier, appointed as a Flinders University professor
 * Amanda Rishworth (1978-), Australian federal politician
 * Xavier Samuel (1983-), actor
 * John Schumann, Michael Atkinson, Verity Truman, Chris Timms (founding members of Redgum)
 * Terence Tao (1975-), Fields Medalist, professor of mathematics at UCLA
 * Sialeʻataonga Tuʻivakanō (1952-), Prime Minister of Tonga

To date, Flinders has produced four Rhodes scholars.