Macquarie University

Macquarie University is an Australian public research university located in Sydney. Its main campus is in Macquarie Park and also has overseas campuses in Hong Kong and Singapore. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney. Macquarie’s 126 hectare park-like campus belies its setting within the high-technology corridor of Sydney’s north-west.

Macquarie has an especially strong reputation in the business and commerce area, such as the actuarial studies and linguistic programme. According to the 'Good University Guide' of Australian University, starting salaries for Macquarie graduates have been ranked as the highest in Australia for ten conscutive years (1998-2007) and university made 5 star ratings in seven different performances categories (2007).Macquarie also continues to be one of Australia's most postgraduate universities, more than 30% of students at Macquarie are taking their graduate/postgraduate degrees and almost 1/3 of them are supported by government and/or university scholarship. Macquarie is currently reviewing its academic structure, with its 32,000 students to be located within four faculties – Business and Commerce; Humanities; Human Sciences, and Science.

Macquarie University's linguistics department developed the Macquarie Dictionary, the copyright on which it still owns. The university also contained a NASA research lab.

History

The idea of founding a third university in Sydney was flagged in the early 1960s when the New South Wales Government formed a committee of enquiry into higher education to deal with a perceived emergency in university enrolments in New South Wales. During this enquiry the Senate of The University of Sydney put in a submission which highlighted ‘the immediate need to establish a third university in the metropolitan area’.

After much debate a future campus location was selected in what was then a semi-rural part of North Ryde, and it was decided that the future university be named after Lachlan Macquarie, an important early governor of the colony of New South Wales.

Macquarie University was formally established in 1964 with the passage of the Macquarie University Act 1964 by the New South Wales Government. The University first opened to students on 6 March, 1967 with more students than anticipated. The Australian Universities Commission had allowed for 510 effective full-time students (EFTS) but Macquarie had 956 enrolments and 622 EFTS.

Between 1968 and 1969 enrolment at Macquarie increased dramatically with an extra 1200 EFTS with 100 new academic staff employed. 1969 also saw the establishment of the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, MGSM.

Macquarie grew during the seventies and eighties with rapid expansion in courses offered, student numbers and development of the site. In 1990 the University absorbed the Institute of Early Childhood Studies of the Sydney College of Advanced Education, under the terms of the Higher Education (Amalgamation) Act 1989. In their book Liberality of Opportunity, Bruce Mansfield and Mark Hutchinson describe the founding of Macquarie University as ‘an act of faith and a great experiment’

There have only been four Vice-Chancellors in the University’s forty-four year history. The first Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University was Alexander George Mitchell who held the position until December 1975 when he was replaced by Edwin Webb who served until 1986. Di Yerbury was appointed to the position in 1986 and was the first female Vice-Chancellor in Australia.

Faculties

Effective from 2009 the old Faculty System has been replaced by this system:

Faculty of Business and Economics
Applied Finance Centre
Department of Accounting and Finance
Department of Actuarial Studies
Department of Business
Department of Business Law
Department of Economics
Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM)

Faculty of Arts
Department of Ancient History
Department of Anthropology
Department of English
Department of Indigenous Studies – Warawara
Department of International Studies
Department of Law
Department of Media, Music and Cultural Studies
Department of Modern History and Politics
Department of Philosophy
Department of Sociology

Faculty of Science
Department of Biological Sciences
Department of Brain Behaviour and Evolution
Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences
Department of Chiropractic
Department of Computing
Department of Environment and Geography
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Department of Mathematics
Department of Physics and Engineering
Department of Statistics

Faculty of Human Sciences
Department of Education
Department of Linguistics
Department of Psychology
Institute of Early Childhood
Institute of Human Cognition and Brain Science
Australian School of Advanced Medicine (ASAM)

Macquarie University ranked 168th in the 2007 THES-QS World University Ranking

Macquarie University ranked 182nd in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking

Macquarie University ranked 189th in the 2009 THES-QS World University Ranking