(QUT) is located in
Brisbane , Queensland, and is one of
Australia 's largest
Universities .
QUT is marketed as "the university for the real world", an indication of its emphasis on the employability of its graduates, and the application of its research for the benefit of the community. The university is a member of the
Australian Technology Network , a network of Australian universities that are strongly focused on professional education and industry-oriented, applied research.
QUT's campus is adjacent to the
Brisbane City Botanic Gardens and
Queensland Parliament House . The university also has campuses at
Kelvin Grove ,
Carseldine and
Caboolture .
QUT is
Queensland 's largest university by enrolment, with 40,000 students, including 4500 international students from over 90 countries.
QUT obtained its current name in 1989. Prior to then, QUT was known as Queensland Institute of Technology (QIT). In 1990, the Brisbane College of Advanced Education campuses of
Kelvin Grove ,
Kedron and
Carseldine merged with QIT. Although the federal government's
Dawkins Reforms were converting many other tertiary institutions into universities at the time, this particular change was independent of the Dawkin's reforms.
Brisbane College of Advanced Education had a number of predecessor institutions that offered technical and teacher education. The oldest of these institutions was the Brisbane School of Arts, which was established in 1849.
QIT began as
Central Technical College . The CTC was established in
1908 at Gardens Point. Its name was changed to QIT in
1965 .
As with all public universities in the state of Queensland, QUT uses the
Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre to process and rank Australian applicants on the basis of merit. QTAC uses the
Overall Position index (OP) to rank school leavers according to performance. International applicants apply
directly to the university.
The Australian university system differs from its American counterpart in that there is less variation in terms of selectivity between institutions. Instead, selectivity varies between courses (programs) of study. At the end of each academic year, each school within QUT decides upon the number of students it will admit and the minimum academic standards required for each course, in the following year. These quotas and minimum standards are forwarded to QTAC, which then selects students on the basis of merit. This process usually means that professional degrees such as
Dietetics ,
Optometry ,
Journalism , and
Law have tougher entry criteria than courses in the pure sciences and humanities.
Recently, QUT has sought to attract exceptional students by offering full scholarships for meritorious students in the sciences, engineering, and information technology. This initiative
OP guarantee provides high-achieving applicants greater certainty by guaranteeing acceptance to most courses (programs), except selective professional degrees such as
Dietetics ,
Optometry and
Podiatry and Double degree such as Journalism/Laws.
QUT has four main campuses:
The Gardens Point campus is located on the
Brisbane River in the city centre, next to the
Brisbane City Botanic Gardens and
Queensland Parliament House . The
Brisbane Graduate School Of Business and the
#Gardens Cultural Precinct are located within this campus. This campus is also home to the Built Environment and Engineering, Business, Information Technology, Law, and Science faculties, as well as QUT's languages programs.
The
Kelvin Grove campus is situated in the suburb of
Kelvin Grove , about two kilometres north of Brisbane's central business district. The
Creative Industries Precinct is part of this campus. The Education, Health and Creative Industries faculties are located at this campus, along with the Justice Studies program and the QUT International College.
In the outer suburb of
Carseldine , 13 kilometres north of the city centre, this campus houses the Humanities and Human Services faculty, as well as the Psychology & Counselling programs. Some units in Communication, Management, Human Resource Management, Environmental Science and Information Technology are also taught at Carseldine, in addition to being taught at Gardens Point.
Situated in
Caboolture , about 45 kilometres north of Brisbane, this campus offers courses in Business (majors in Management and Marketing) and Education (Only Middle School is on offer after the first year of study). It also offers first year units for degrees in Arts, Social Science and Creative Industries. In 2007, the Bachelor of Nursing will be offered at the Caboolture campus.
Undergraduate and postgraduate students on all campuses are represented by the QUT Student Guild.
QUT's centre for the arts, the Gardens Cultural Precinct, provides a creative focus for the people of Brisbane at one of the city's most historically important sites.
The Gardens Cultural Precinct includes the Gardens Theatre and the QUT Art Museum, and is adjacent to the
Brisbane City Botanic Gardens and the
Old Government House . The Gardens Theatre is a medium-sized venue, formerly known as the Basil Jones Theatre, and was renovated with assistance from the
Queensland Government . It was reopened as the Gardens Theatre in
1999 by the
Premier Of Queensland ,
Peter Beattie . It provides space for QUT productions and visiting performers, and is the only theatre complex in Brisbane's central business district.
The QUT Art Museum houses the university's art collection, focussed on contemporary Australian art, particularly paintings, prints and ceramics, as well as other temporary exhibitions and exhibitions by QUT staff and students. QUT Art Museum is located on the ground level of the University's main administration building at the Gardens Point campus. The building is a
1930s Neo-classical revivalist building, and the QUT Art Museum was designed by Peddle Thorpe Architects, Brisbane.
QUT's Creative Industries Precinct is an extension to the Kelvin Grove campus, housing the Creative Industries faculty and consisting of a large complex incorporating numerous performance and display spaces, offices, classrooms, workshops, a cafe and more. It also houses Australia's largest billboard (45m x 9m), which advertises events, performances and exhibitions at the Precinct.
The Precinct was built at a cost of around $60 million on the site of the
Gona Barracks , which was de-commissioned in
1998 . It is the first part of the
Kelvin Grove Urban Village development, a 'residential and retail village'. The development will include over 800 residential units, from low-cost student accommodation to penthouses with city views; retail stores including a supermarket, restaurants and cafes; and QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.
