University of Tasmania

The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a medium-sized public Australian university based in Tasmania, Australia. Officially founded on 1 January 1890, it was the fourth university to be established in nineteenth-century Australia. UTAS is a sandstone university and is a member of the international Association of Commonwealth Universities.

UTAS offers various undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of disciplines. UTAS has also been consistently ranked in the top 10 universities in Australia for research and has links with 20 specialist research institutes, cooperative research centres and faculty based research centres; many of which are regarded as nationally and internationally competitive leaders. UTAS has a student population of nearly 26,800, including over 6,000 international students (on and offshore) and 1000 PhD students.

Founding
The University of Tasmania was established in 1890, after the abolition of overseas scholarships provided funds. The first campus location was the Queens Domain in Hobart. Richard Deodatus Poulett Harris, who had long advocated the establishment of the University, became its first warden of the senate. The first degrees to graduates admitted ad eundem gradum and diplomas were awarded in June 1890. Three lecturers began teaching a handful of students in 1893. Parliamentarians branding it an unnecessary luxury made the university's early existence precarious. The institution's encouragement of female students fuelled criticism. James Backhouse Walker, a local lawyer and briefly Vice-Chancellor, mounted a courageous defence. By the First World War there were over one hundred students and several Tasmanian graduates were influential in law and politics.

According to Chancellor Sir John Morris, from 1918 until 1939 the institution still 'limped along'. Distinguished staff had already appeared, such as historian William Jethro Brown, physicists and mathematicians Alexander McAulay and his son Alexander Leicester McAulay, classicist RL Dunbabin, and philosopher and polymath Edmund Morris Miller. Housed in the former Hobart High School, facilities were totally outgrown, but the state government was slow to fund a new campus on the old Sandy Bay rifle range.

World War II
During the Second World War, while the Optical Munitions Annexe assisted the war effort, local graduates, replacing soldier academics, taught a handful of students. New post-war staff, many with overseas experience, pressed for removal to adequate facilities at Sandy Bay. Chancellor Sir John Morris, also Chief Justice, though a dynamic reformer, antagonised academics by his authoritarianism. Vice-Chancellor Torliev Hytten, an eminent economist, saw contention peak while the move to Sandy Bay was delayed. In a passionate open letter to the premier, Philosophy Professor Sydney Orr goaded the government into establishing the 1955 Royal Commission into the University. The Commission report demanded extensive reform of both University and governing council. Staff were delighted, while lay administrators fumed.

The Orr Case
In early 1956 Orr was summarily dismissed, mainly for his alleged though denied seduction of a student. A ten-year battle involved academics in Australia and overseas. Orr lost an unfair dismissal action in the Tasmanian Supreme Court and the High Court of Australia. The Tasmanian chair of Philosophy was boycotted. In 1966 Orr received some financial compensation from the University, which also established a cast-iron tenure system. The latter disappeared with the federal reorganisation of higher education in the late 1980s.

The 1960s
In the early 1960s UTAS at last transferred to a bright new campus at Sandy Bay. It profited from increasing federal finance following the 1957 Murray Report. Medical and Agricultural Schools were established and the sciences obtained adequate laboratories. Physics achieved world recognition in radio astronomy, while other departments attracted good scholars and graduates were celebrated in many fields. Student facilities improved remarkably.

Merger and the 'new' University
In 1981 UTAS incorporated the College of Advanced Education, recently established on nearby Mount Nelson, which raised numbers to 5000.

In the early 1990s, the 'Dawkins Revolution' and the unified national system ensured amalgamation with the Tasmanian State Institute of Technology at Launceston. The University of Tasmania was reorganised in 1991 when it merged with the Tasmanian State Institute of Technology, which became the Newnham Campus. A new centre at Burnie was opened in 1995, which later became the Cradle Coast Campus. Though the University of Tasmania retained its old name, like other contemporary institutions, a new era dominated by market forces rather than generous public funding.

The University of Tasmania and Tasmania Polytechnic and Skills Institute are the only remaining institutions of higher education in Tasmania. The Australian Maritime College (AMC) integrated with the university in 2008.

Campuses
UTAS has three main campuses. The southern campus encompasses a 100-hectare site in Sandy Bay, about 10 minutes from the Hobart CBD. The Sandy Bay campus overlooks the estuary of the River Derwent and has the majestic Mount Wellington as its backdrop.

The northern campus is in the suburb of Newnham, looking down to the River Tamar, about 10 minutes from the centre of Tasmania’s second largest city, Launceston.The Australian Maritime College is based on the Newnham campus.

Established in 1995, the vibrant Cradle Coast campus in Burnie caters for academics and students in the State’s north-west. It underwent significant expansion in 2008. Also in Burnie is the University’s state-of the-art Rural Clinical School.

There are a number of satellite campuses including the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music and the Tasmanian School of Arts in the Centre for the Arts in the heart of Hobart’s cultural precinct. Also in downtown Hobart is the Medical Sciences Precinct, part of a new education and research complex that encompasses the School of Medicine and the Menzies Research Institute.

UTAS established a presence in Sydney in 2006 and is now delivering nursing and paramedic courses from the Darlinghurst and Rozelle campuses.

The Academy of the Arts and the School of Architecture & Design are housed in the Inveresk Arts Precinct, an award-winning, 17-hectare inner city site comprising arts studios, galleries, performance spaces, a museum and specialist workshops.
 * Sandy Bay - the Sandy Bay campus is set on 100 hectares of land in the suburb of Sandy Bay – a short distance from the centre of Hobart. Much of the upper campus is in natural bushland. Closer to the city centre are the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, the Clinical School (and more recently the medical sciences building) and the Tasmanian School of Art. About 10,000 students are enrolled at the Sandy Bay campus. N.B. The Conservatorium of Music campus is no longer a public building. Access to the premises by the public will not be easily accessible, nor will it be by students or staff.
 * Newnham - the Newnham campus is set on 50 hectares at Newnham overlooking the Tamar River, ten minutes from the centre of Launceston. Students studying Visual and Performing Arts and Architecture are located at the Inveresk campus. Over 5000 students are enrolled at both campuses.
 * Cradle Coast - the Cradle Coast campus is located in the city of Burnie. This campus was established in 1995 as the North-West Study Centre.

The university also has a 334 hectare property located 20 km from the Sandy Bay campus. The University Farm is set in the cropping and grape growing area of Cambridge located in the Coal River valley, serving the teaching and research needs of the School of Agricultural Science.

Libraries
The University of Tasmania library system comprises eight libraries:


 * 1) Morris Miller (Sandy Bay)
 * 2) Law (Sandy Bay)
 * 3) Science (Sandy Bay)
 * 4) Art (Central Hobart)
 * 5) Music (Central Hobart)
 * 6) Clinical (Central Hobart)
 * 7) Launceston Campus (Launceston)
 * 8) Cradle Coast Campus (Burnie)

Organisation
UTAS is organised into six faculties: arts, business, education, health science, law, and science, engineering & technology. In addition to these faculties, UTAS has six theme areas through which multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaborations in research and research training, learning and teaching, and community engagement are fostered. The theme areas are: Antarctic and Marine Science; Community, Place and Change; Environment; Frontier Technologies; Population and Health; and Sustainable Primary Production.

UTAS currently holds the secretariat role of the International Antarctic Institute established in 2006 in partnership with 19 institutions in 12 countries.

A partnership between UTAS and the Cradle Coast Authority established the Institute for Regional Development at the Cradle Coast campus in 2005.

Rankings
The University is a research intensive university. It has consistently been ranked amongst the best in Australia for its research performance. Separately, the University is Domestically, ranked within the 14-17th bracket in Australia. based on the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), issued by Jiao Tong University. Also, in the newly published Excellence in Research for Australia, the University was ranked 14 in Australia for its research quality.

Internationally, the University is ranked 320 based on the QS World University Rankings 2010.

Research produced by the Melbourne Institute in 2006, ranked Australian universities across seven main discipline areas: Arts & Humanities, Business & Economics, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, and Science. Based on data collected, the university ranked amongst the best in several of its discipline including Arts & Humanities, Law, Medicine, and Science but fared poorly in Business & Economics, Education and Engineering.


 * National Academic Ranking is based on the research output and teaching quality of institution.
 * National Survey Ranking is based on Australian and overseas academics, scholars & professionals perception of institution.

Research
The university's priority research themes include
 * Antarctic and Marine
 * Community, Place and Change
 * Sustainable Primary Production
 * Population and Health
 * Environment
 * Frontier Technologies

Research Institutions

 * Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
 * Menzies Research Institute
 * Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies
 * Centre for Colonialism and its Aftermath
 * Centre for Law and Genetics
 * Tasmania Law Reform Institute
 * Centre for Aboriginal Education
 * Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies
 * Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute
 * Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies
 * Centre for Marine Science
 * Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC
 * Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science
 * Australian Innovation Research Centre
 * Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits -
 * Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research
 * Australian Food Safety Centre of Excellence

Student unionism
Until 2008, there were two separate student unions the Tasmania University Union (TUU) in Hobart and the Student Association (SA) in Launceston. Due to the abolition of compulsory student unionism in 2007, the SA and the TUU amalgamated into one statewide organisation representing all UTAS students.

The president of the TUU is elected to represent all UTAS students on all campuses, and both Hobart and Launceston have their own vice-president and student representative councils. Both the TUU state president and TUU state postgraduate sit on University Council, which is the governing body of the University of Tasmania.

The TUU is responsible for the overseeing of all the university’s many sports clubs and societies. Some of these include faculty-based societies, such as the law students, medical students and engineering students societies; societies related to various interests, such as PLoT (Produces Lots of Theatre), The Anime Society; and various sporting clubs, including white water rafting, soccer, hockey, touch football, Australian Rules football, and rugby union.

Residential Colleges
The university maintains a strong residential college system. A key aspect of campus life, the residential colleges are equipped with modern facilities and host several events during the semesters. The colleges also maintain their respective student clubs, key in the passing of traditions from one cohort to the next. The southern colleges annually compete in a series of sporting events including Rugby, Australian Football, Cricket, Softball, Basketball, Table Tennis, Tennis and Soccer.

Tasmania Scholarships
The Tasmania Scholarships program supports the University’s commitment to offer students equal learning opportunity. It assists talented students, both locally, nationally and internationally. Industry contributions now make up the backbone of the Tasmania Scholarships program. The development and growth of this initiative into one of the most successful sponsored programs in the country is exceptional by any standard. Around 10 per cent of all domestic students at UTAS receive some sort of scholarship or financial assistance.

Alumni
There are around 50,000 graduates who are now scattered all over the globe. Tasmania alumni include Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark; Peter Underwood, Governor of Tasmania; Philip Lewis Griffiths, Acting Chief Judge of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea; Scott Brennan, Gold Medalist at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics for rowing; Bill Mollison, "Father of Permaculture;" William Noel Benson, geologist; Hon Justice Peter Heerey, Federal Court Judge; Chief Justice Ewan Crawford, Chief Justice and Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania; Hannah Yeoh, member of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly;; Dr.Halimah Ali, member of the Selangor Executive council and Selangor State Legislative assembly; Dato' Effendi Norwawi, former Minister of Agriculture Malaysia; Imam Sabri Samson, Grand Imam for Hobart Islamic Centre; Othman Hj Omar, General Manager for Selangor State Development Corporation; Charles Philip Haddon-Cave, former Financial Secretary of Hong Kong; Richard Flanagan, author and film director; Stephen Gumley, CEO of the Australian Defence Materiel Organisation; Neal Blewett, Australian politician; Simon Hollingsworth, Australian athlete; Constantine Koukias, Australian composer. and Prithviraj Sukumaran, South Indian Actor, Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed, SAARC Secretary-General.