Macquarie University

Date founded: 1967

Colleges or faculties: Arts; Business and Economics; Human Sciences; Medicine and Health Sciences; Science and Engineering

Location: Sydney, New South Wales

Type: Public

Size: 40,209 students; 1,525 faculty

Macquarie University is a Sydney-based centre of higher learning with faculties offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. Students can take courses in the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Business and Economics, the Faculty of Human Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the Faculty of Science and Engineering. In addition to traditional degree paths, the university offers a research-only postgraduate degree, at both master’s and doctoral levels. As at other Australian universities, Macquarie University offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Indigenous Studies, either as majors or as full degrees of study. About one-third of the more than 40,000 students are from other countries.

The campus is about 16 kilometres north-west of Sydney's central business district, in a suburb that was once called North Ryde but is now called Macquarie Park. The area is home to several high-tech enterprises, some with research arrangements with and facilities at the university. The university also has research agreements with more than 150 universities in other countries, including China and Germany. Macquarie University is partner in a trilateral joint PhD agreement with China’s Fudan University and Germany’s Hamburg University.

On campus is the Macquarie University International College, which offers diplomas in Accounting, Commerce and Business Administration; Engineering; Information Technology; and Media and Communication. Macquarie University is also affiliated with Open Universities Australia, offering online degrees, diplomas and certificates.

History

Macquarie University was named for former New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1762–1824) in 1964 by the New South Wales Cabinet. A Scotsman by birth, Macquarie was a long-time military man, serving in the British Army during the American War of Independence and in India and Egypt. He was appointed governor of New South Wales in 1809 and embarked on a large public works program to provide work for an increasing number of convicts arriving from elsewhere in the British Empire. He oversaw the establishment of New South Wales and Sydney, in particular, as a much more modern settlement. He established the colony's first bank and oversaw the construction of several now-iconic buildings, such as Sydney Hospital and St James' Church. His championing of building new roads, to connect Sydney to nearby townships, led to those townships being called "Macquarie Towns". His time as governor was not without controversy, especially since he insisted that former convicts who had served out their sentences be treated in the same way as people who had never been convicted of a crime. He submitted his resignation multiple times and left his post in 1822 to return to England.

Macquarie University organizing officials considered his long record of military and public service and his role in “modernising” New South Wales a good example for its students to follow. The university opened its doors in March 1967. University officials had planned for about five hundred full-time students, but enrolments were double that. The number of students steadily increased as the years went by. Opening in 1969 was the Graduate School of Management. The university added the Macquarie Law School in 1972 and the Institute of Early Childhood Studies in 1990. To the north of the main campus is the not-for-profit Macquarie University Hospital, a private medical teaching facility that opened in 2010. A remodelled library opened in 2011, featuring the country’s first automated storage and retrieval system; the library collection houses more than one million books and periodicals.

Impact

The Macquarie University Graduate School of Management is international in focus, with campuses in Macquarie Park, the Sydney central business district and Hong Kong. Among the areas of focus for students pursuing a master’s degree in Business or Management is sustainable leadership. Macquarie’s Global Leadership Programme (GLP) offers students extracurricular opportunities in leadership and international studies through internships and study in other countries; the Institute for International Education recognised Macquarie University with a high-profile Heiskell Award in recognition of the GLP. The headquarters of the Australian Research Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, a not-for-profit centre focusing on sustainable lifestyles, has its headquarters on campus.

Macquarie offers students a number of hands-on learning opportunities. The Simulation Hub offers students opportunities to “practice” solving problems in real-life environments without having to leave campus. Opportunities are in driving, playing music, playing sport and flying planes, among others, as well as studying human behavioural problems in a safe (virtual) environment. Arts students can avail themselves of state-of-the-art music, radio and dance studios at the multimillion-dollar Media Hub. Journalism students can simulate real-world environments, both in front of and behind the camera or studio, in the Futures Lab.

One of the country’s leading institutions in hearing research is on the Macquarie University campus, in the form of the Australian Hearing Hub, which specialises in cochlear implants for both children and adults. Students from any discipline can benefit from the efforts of the Cyber Security Hub, a university-industry partnership program that connects students with business and finance leaders in a joint pursuit of efforts to thwart cybercrime.

Macquarie University faculty, staff, and alumni have been recognized for a range of accomplishments. Di Yerbury was the first female Vice-Chancellor in Australia; she served for nearly twenty years. Researchers David Skellern and Neil Weste helped develop Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, which led to the development of Wi-Fi. Swimmer Ian Thorpe won nine Olympic medals including five gold. Members of the Linguistics department developed the Macquarie Dictionary, which is widely looked to as the linguistic standard on Australia's standards of English.

Bibliography

“About.” Macquarie University. https://www.mq.edu.au/about. Accessed 5 February 2019.

Davis, Glyn. The Australian Idea of a University. University of Melbourne Press, 2017.

Forsyth, Hannah. A History of the Modern Australian University. NewSouth, 2014.

“Macquarie University.” Universities Australia, 27 Mar 2018. https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/australias-universities/university-profiles/Macquarie-University/Macquarie-University#.XGTIeXCIZc8. Accessed 5 February 2019.

Mansfield, Bruce, and Mark Hutchinson. Liberality of Opportunity: A History of Macquarie University, 1964–1989. Macquarie University/Hale & Iremonger, 1992. https://bio.mq.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Mansfield-B-Hutchinson-M-1992-Liberality-of-Opportuinity-A-History-of-Macquarie-University-1964-1989-Hale-Iremonger-Sydney.pdf. Accessed 7 Oct. 2018.

Nott, George. “Macquarie Uni Coupler Enables Super-Fast Fibre, a Potential Antidote to ‘Capacity Crunch.’” ComputerWorld, Nov. 2018, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=anh&AN=133051581&site=ehost-live. Accessed 7 Oct. 2018.

Reed, Richard J., and Brian Hurd. “A Value beyond Money? Assessing the Impact of Equity Scholarships: From Access to Success.” Studies in Higher Education, vol. 41, no. 7, July 2016, pp. 1236–1250. EBSCOhost, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=anh&AN=117789047&site=ehost-live. Accessed 7 Oct. 2018.

The Power of International Education: https://www.iie.org/Research-and-Insights/Best-Practices-Resource/Award-Winners/Internationalizing-the-Campus/Macquarie-University-2017. Accessed 7 Oct. 2018.