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Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus public research university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network university with an amalgamation between the Nepean College of Advanced Education and the Hawkesbury Agricultural College. The Macarthur Institute of Higher Education was incorporated in the university in 1989. In 2001, the University of Western Sydney was restructured as a single multi-campus university rather than as a federation. In 2015, the university underwent a rebranding which resulted in a change in name from the University of Western Sydney to Western Sydney University. It is a provider of undergraduate, postgraduate, and higher research degrees with campuses in Bankstown, Blacktown, Campbelltown, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Parramatta, Penrith, and Surabaya.

History

Foundation and early years (1988–1990s)

The university consists of an amalgamation of campuses, each with their own unique and individual history. In 1891, the Hawkesbury campus was established as an agricultural college by the NSW Agricultural Society. At Parramatta, Western Sydney University owns and has renovated the Female Orphan School building, the foundation stone of which was laid by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1813.

In 1987, the New South Wales Labor government planned to name the university Chifley University, after the former Labor prime minister, Ben Chifley. However, in 1989, a new Liberal government reversed this decision and controversially named it the University of Western Sydney.

In 1989, teachers' colleges and Colleges of Advanced Education in Sydney's western suburbs were given university status under the University of Western Sydney Act 1988. The 1990s saw the federation of three education providers: UWS Nepean, UWS Hawkesbury, and UWS Macarthur. The university has a legislative basis in NSW state legislation with the passing of the University of Western Sydney Act 1997, which also empowers the university to make by-laws affecting the operation of the university.

A performing arts school had been established at UWS's predecessor, the Nepean College of Advanced Education, in 1980. There was a School of Visual and Performing Arts in the 1990s at UWS Nepean at Kingswood. The early incarnation of the school comprised three specialisations, acting, dance, and theatremaking. The drama school at UWS became known as Theatre Nepean. In 1997, a student-led organisation, CentreStage, was created by second-year performance students as a fund-raising body to cover the costs of staging and promoting Theatre Nepean's graduation productions not only at the Playhouse at the Kingswood campus and the Centre for Contemporary Performance at the Werrington South campus. Ruth Cracknell was its founding patron (and patron of Theatre Nepean until her death in 2002), with John Bell patron, and 1987 graduate of Theatre Nepean, David Wenham, its ambassador in 2002. At some point, due to lack of funding, the school amalgamated its three-discipline program into a single course.

Restructuring (2000s)

Federal government funding of Australia's universities as a percentage of Australia's GDP was in decline during the years of the Howard government. Federal funding policy was very influential at UWS. In 2000, after internal restructuring and cost-cutting, UWS Hawkesbury, UWS Macarthur, and UWS Nepean ceased to exist as autonomous components of the now defunct University of Western Sydney federation and became the new multi-campus University of Western Sydney.

Campuses and buildings

Western Sydney University is a multi-campus institution. Each campus hosts an array of courses and different units can be completed across multiple campuses.

Parramatta

The Parramatta Campus was first established on the site of the Female Orphan School, which was founded in 1813. The site was formerly home to Rydalmere Psychiatric hospital and is located at the eastern end of Parramatta, near the border with the suburb of Rydalmere. It now houses the Whitlam Institute.

The Rydalmere campus was established as a campus of UWS in 1998. It is the nearest campus to the Sydney CBD.

Parramatta campus courses include occupation fields like Science, Business, and Law. It also hosts their Science courses in modern buildings near to the Rydalmere campus at a site formerly used by quarantine authorities, CSIRO, Amdel Sugar, and the Biological and Chemical Research Institute laboratories.

The university announced the establishment of a new campus in the Parramatta CBD as an extension of its existing Parramatta Campus in 2014.

Bankstown

The Bankstown Campus which opened in 1989, was located at Milperra, about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the Bankstown CBD. Specialising in the social sciences, most of the students on campus are psychology, sociology, arts, linguistics, and education students. The campus also hosts the Bachelor of Policing degree and much of The MARCS Institute. UWS's most well-known interpreting and translation course is taught at Bankstown campus. UWS trains and produces many NAATI accredited interpreters and translators. The campus also included a modern cafeteria/eatery area as well as Oliver Brown.

It was the original campus of the Macarthur Institute of Higher Education, which merged into the then-new university in 1989; however, as a result of widespread rebuilding by WSU, the oldest building on campus was opened in 1989. The building contains a plaque indicating that it was opened by the then treasurer and later Prime Minister Paul Keating.

Western Sydney University has built a new vertical campus in the Bankstown CBD which opened in March 2023. The campus caters to 10,000 students and 700 staff with courses in education, psychology, business and IT. In December 2019, Western Sydney University announced a partnership with the University of Technology Sydney which will see the two universities collaborate on postgraduate teaching and research. The two universities will also co-locate their business incubator programs at the new Bankstown City Campus. The new Bankstown City campus was officially opened in December 2022, and commenced teaching in early 2023.

Governance and structure

Board of trustees

The board of trustees is the peak jurisdiction for the university and has members consisting from Ministerial appointments, academic appointments, and an undergraduate and post-graduate student representative.

Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor

The fourth Chancellor of the university, appointed in January 2023 is Jennifer Westacott, a former senior public servant and partner at KPMG. Westacott followed Professor Peter Shergold, who served as Chancellor from 2014–2022.

In July 2024, Distinguished Professor George Williams, became the fifth Vice-Chancellor and President of the University. The previous Vice-Chancellor who served from 2014 was Barney Glover, .

Constituent schools

Western Sydney University's academic activity is organised into "schools" of various academic faculties.

The university formerly had nine schools:

• School of Business
• School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics
• School of Education
• School of Humanities and Communication Arts
• School of Law
• School of Medicine
• School of Nursing and Midwifery
• School of Social Sciences and Psychology
• School of Science and Health

In 2019, the Board of Trustees approved the establishment of the following Schools from January 2020:

• School of Health
• School of Science
• School of Social Sciences
• School of Psychology
• School of the Built Environment, Architecture and Industrial Design
• School of Computer, Data and Mathematical Sciences
• School of Engineering

And the concurrent disestablishment of the following existing Schools:

• School of Science and Health
• School of Social Sciences and Psychology
• School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics

In addition to the schools of specific academic disciplines, the University has a central Graduate Research School.

Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education

The Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education provides support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. It has a centre on each campus, staffed by people who share their knowledge and experience of life for Indigenous students.

Academic profile

Research and publications

In 2013 Western Sydney University was successful in obtaining over $5.8 million in grants from the prestigious Australian Research Council for 18 Discovery Projects, placing it 11th out of 40 universities in Australia.

The university publishes the Australian Edition of the Global Media Journal (GMJ/AU), an online journal that publishes "essays and research reports that focus on any aspects in the field of Communication, Media and Journalism". Its first edition was published in 2007.

The university has been publishing Translation & Interpreting. The International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research, a peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of translation and language interpretation to create a cross-fertilization between research, training and professional practice. The online, open access journal publishes two issues a year. It was established in 2009.

Tuition, loans and financial aid

For international students starting in 2025, tuition fees range from A$24,840 to A$40,440 per academic year for award programs lasting at least one year. Domestic students may be offered a federally-subsidised Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) which substantially decreases the student contribution amount billed to the student. The maximum student contribution amount limits that can be applied to CSP students are dependent on the field of study.

Since 2021, Commonwealth Supported Places have also been limited to 7 years of equivalent full-time study load (EFTSL), calculated in the form of Student Learning Entitlement (SLE). Students may accrue additional SLE under some circumstances (e.g. starting a separate one-year honours program) or every 10 years. Domestic students are also able to access the HECS-HELP student loans scheme offered by the federal government. These are indexed to the Consumer or Wage Price Index, whichever is lower, and repayments are voluntary unless the recipient passes an income threshold.

The university also offers several scholarships, which come in the form of bursaries or tuition fee remission.

Academic reputation

In the 2024 Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities, which measures aggregate performance across the QS, THE and ARWU rankings, the university attained a position of #302 (21st nationally).

National publications

In the Australian Financial Review Best Universities Ranking 2025, the university was tied #29 amongst Australian universities.

Global publications

In the 2026 Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (published 2025), the university attained a position of #400 (22nd nationally).

Student life

Student unions

Prior to 2009, Western Sydney University had two student organisations, each with its own focus and areas of responsibility. These organisations voluntarily shut down operations in 2009. These organisations were responsible for the bulk of extracurricular activities and services provided by the university.

Each organisation previously sourced their funds from Compulsory Student Unionism fees. With the passage of Voluntary Student Unionism legislation, UWS agreed to fund the organisations, but at a substantially reduced level. UWSSA also asked students to pay a voluntary $60 fee.

UWSSA and PAUWS were independent of the university, while UWSConnect is wholly owned by UWS.

UWSSA Inc. — UWS Students' Association. Its motto was "Bringing life to knowledge " – a twist on the university's motto. It aimed to improve student life at the university by providing welfare and support services, and ran campaigns on issues affecting the student population.

PAUWS Inc. — The Postgraduate Association of UWS was a student's association for the postgraduate student population at the university.

UWSConnect Ltd. — UWSConnect is a not-for-profitcompany owned by the university which aims to improve university life by providing bars, cafés, sporting events, recreational activities, etc. It is responsible for organising commercial ties with the university and its students, such as advertising space within the university, vending machines and student discounts and special offers. Connect Fitness — Connect Fitness is a not-for-profit organisation located on the grounds of Western Sydney University with four gyms now in operation over the Kingswood, Hawkesbury, Bankstown and Campbelltown campuses.

SPORT. — In 1989 the first football club of the university was formed at the Kingswood campus competing against other universities in intervarsity competitions including in Canberra, Armidale and Melbourne.

In 2019 the university restructured student representation, with the Western Sydney University Student Representative Council (SRC) becoming the peak representative body for all enrolled students at Western Sydney University. The Council consists of 22 Representatives elected to represent the various campuses of Western Sydney University, Consisting of campus representative, collective officers, and the executive.

Student newspapers

WSUPnews is the student newspaper of the Western Sydney University. W'SUP was previously known as cruWsible which was established in 2013.

Student accommodation

Western Sydney University has on-campus accommodation in the form of the UWS Village located adjacent to its Parramatta Campus. The village was opened in February 2009, providing apartments from one to eight bedrooms. At the time of opening, the village was the third Campus Living Villages property to be established in Sydney after the Macquarie University Village and the Sydney University Village.

Notable people

Academics and staff

The winner of the 2007 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Alexis Wright, was a UWS Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2010.

In 2011, author Anita Heiss was Adjunct Associate Professor at the university, attached to the Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education (see below).

Award-winning Australian author Gail Jones was a professor in the university's Writing and Society Research Centre as of 2019.

Controversies

Reports of on-campus sexual assault and harassment

Between 2011 and 2016, there were 28 officially reported cases of sexual abuse and harassment on campus, resulting in no expulsions, no suspensions, and 7 warnings. The 2017 Australian Human Rights Commission report on sexual assault and harassment gave figures substantially higher than this.

Complementary medicine

Early in 2016, some controversy surrounding the university's full support of complementary medicine and the university's alleged spying on employees who lodge complaints in good faith emerged in the press. An employee, as well as eminent scientists, criticised the support of the university for complementary medicines such as homeopathy, acupuncture, TCM, and energy healing. The main controversial aspect was the continued support of these pseudo-scientific fields in exchange for continued funding from the naturopathic Jacka Foundation of Natural Therapies.

The National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM), a part of Western Sydney University, won the Bent Spoon Award in November 2017. This award is bestowed by the Australian Skeptics to 'the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-scientific piffle'. In early 2017, the university unsuccessfully attempted to block their Bent Spoon nomination. This led to a number of articles appearing in the media taking an in-depth look at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine. The university was found to have accepted an untied gift of $10 million from the controversial supplement company, Blackmores. These funds would partly be used to establish a traditional Chinese medicine 'hospital' in Sydney's health precinct, Westmead.

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)