University of Wollongong

Wollongong, Australia

The University of Wollongong informally known as Wollongong University, is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2014 the university has an enrolment of over 30,000 students (including over 12,800 international students from 134 countries), an alumni base of over 112,000 and over 2,000 academic related staff. As of 2015, Wollongong consistently ranks among the top 2% of universities in the world. In 1951 a division of the New South Wales University of Technology (known as the University of New South Wales from 1958) was established at Wollongong for the conduct of diploma courses. In 1961 the Wollongong University College of the University of New South Wales was constituted and the college was officially opened in 1962. In 1975 the University of Wollongong was established as an independent institution. Since its establishment, the university has conferred more than 100,000 degrees, diplomas and certificates. Its students, originally predominantly from the local Illawarra region, are now from over 140 countries, with international students accounting for more than 30 percent of total. The University of Wollongong has fundamentally developed into a multi-campus institution, three of which are in the Illawarra (Wollongong, Shoalhaven and Innovation Campus in North Wollongong), one in Sydney and one overseas in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Wollongong campus, the university's main campus, is on the original site five kilometres north-west of the city centre, and covers an area of 82.4 hectares with 94 permanent buildings including six student residences. In addition, there are university education centres in Bega, Batemans Bay, Moss Vale and Loftus as well as the Sydney Business School in the City of Sydney. The university also offers courses equally based on the Wollongong campus in collaboration with partner institutions in a number of offshore locations including in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.