The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australia with approximately 32,000 students.
The university was founded in its current form in 1991 with the merger of the South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT, established in 1889 as the South Australian School of Mines and Industries) and the South Australian College of Advanced Education (SACAE, established 1856). The legislation to establish and name the new University of South Australia was introduced by the Hon Mike Rann MP, Minister of Employment and Further Education. Under the University’s Act, its original mission was “to preserve, extend and disseminate knowledge through teaching, research, scholarship and consultancy, and to provide educational programs that will enhance the diverse cultural life of the wider community”.
UniSA is among the world’s top newer universities, ranked in the World’s Top 50 Under 50 (universities which are under 50 years old) by both the Quacarelli Symonds (QS) World University Ranking (#29) and Times Higher Education (THE) (#25). It has two Adelaide city centre campuses, two Adelaide metropolitan campuses, and two South Australian regional campuses.
Rankings and Achievements
The University of South Australia’s academic structure consists of seven Academic Units:
UniSA Allied Health & Human Performance
UniSA Clinical & Health Sciences
UniSA Business
UniSA Creative
UniSA Education Futures
UniSA Justice & Society
UniSA STEM
The University of South Australia is ranked within the top 300 universities worldwide by the QS World University Rankings[40] and 251-300th ranking bracket by the 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.[41] UniSA Business School is fully accredited by EQUIS, which accredited fewer than 200 universities worldwide.[42] In 2015 in the Excellence in Research for Australia rankings, 97% of UniSA’s research was rated at world class or above.[43] In 2018, this was upgraded to 100% of UniSA’s research at or above world class.[44]
Research Institutes The University of South Australia is home to three institutes:
- Future Industries Institute (FII)
- The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science and
- The Centre for Cancer Biology