Tertiary Education in Australia - Australian Universities

Australian Universities

In Australia, universities are self-accrediting institutions and each university has its own establishment legislation (generally State and Territory legislation) and receive the vast majority of their public funding from the Australian Government, through the Higher Education Support Act 2003. The Australian National University, the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and the Australian Maritime College are established under Commonwealth legislation. The Australian Catholic University is established under corporations law. It has establishment Acts in New South Wales and Victoria. Many private providers are also established under corporations law. As self-accrediting institutions, Australia’s universities have a reasonably high level of autonomy to operate within the legislative requirements associated with their Australian Government funding.

Australian universities are represented through the national universities' lobbying body Universities Australia (previously called Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee). Eight universities in the list have formed a group in recognition of their recognized status and history, known as the ‘Group of Eight’ or ‘G8’. Other university networks of have been formed among those of less prominence (e.g., the Australian Technology Network and the Innovative Research Universities). Academic standing and achievements vary across these groups and student entry standards also vary with the G08 universities having the highest standing in both categories.

Many universities in Australia have gained international recognition and have been ranked highly in Academic Ranking of World Universities produced by Shanghai JiaoTong University, and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In 2011-2012, 7 Australian universities were ranked amongst the world's top 200.