Federation University Australia (Fed Uni) is a public, multi-sector university based in Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. The university also has campuses in Ararat, Horsham, Stawell, Churchill, Berwick, and Brisbane, as well as online technical and further education (TAFE) courses and Horsham’s Higher Education Nursing program.
Federation University is the fourth oldest tertiary education institution in Australia, having begun under predecessor institutions in 1870, during the Victorian gold rush. With the merger between the University of Ballarat and Monash University‘s Gippsland campus in 2013, the university changed its name to Federation University from 2014.
Undergraduate Studies
Students can undertake undergraduate degrees across a wide range of study areas, which are:
- Humanities and social sciences
- Engineering
- Business
- Science and mathematics
- Education and early childhood
- Nursing, midwifery and paramedicine
- Psychology
- Performing arts
- Visual arts
- Information technology
- Occupational health and safety
- Sport, outdoor and physical education
- TAFE
Research
Researchers – academics and post-graduate students – undertake work within various centres, as well as within the disciplines. The research priority areas of the university are information forensics and security, transformative and preventative health, dynamic landscapes, history and heritage, and improving policy and practice in VET. The research centres are:
- Australian Retirement Research Institute (ARRI)
- Centre for Biopsychosocial and eHealth Research and Innovation (CBeRI)
- Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI)
- Centre for Gippsland Studies (CGS)
- Centre for Informatics and Applied Optimisation (CIAO)
- Centre for Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Artificial Intelligence Research (MCCAIR)
- Collaborative Research Centre in Australian History (CRCAH)
- Geotechnical and Hydrogeological Engineering Research Group (GHERG)
- Researching Adult and Vocational Education (RAVE)
- Water Research Network
- Visiting Friends and Relatives Research
There are also research facilities at Ballarat Technology Park, the Gippsland Enterprise Centre and Nanya Station in rural NSW.
Rankings
In 2017, FedUni was ranked within the top 20% of Australian universities in humanities for teaching quality, learner engagement, learning resources, skills development, and student support.[21] Nationally, the university is ranked 31 in Australia (out of 40) and 1526 in the world.[22] Across the university, for postgraduate research the university is rated above the national average by former students with 78.8% satisfaction. For undergraduate studies, the university is rated above national average by former students with 83.3% satisfaction.[23]
Historically, the former University of Ballarat achieved a maximum five-star rating for teaching quality in the Good Universities Guide consecutively from 2010 to 2014. Federation University has been ranked four-stars for graduate placement by the Good Universities Guide, but is not ranked in international university guides.[24] This placed the university in the top tier of Australian regional universities.