James Cook University
| JCU Logo | |
| Motto | Crescente Luce "light ever increasing" |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Established | 1970 |
| Chancellor | John Grey |
| Vice-Chancellor | Sandra Harding |
| Undergraduates | 12,093[1] (2007) |
| Postgraduates | 3,663[1] (2007) |
| Location | , , |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Affiliations | IRUA |
| Website | http://www.jcu.edu.au |
James Cook University (JCU) is a public university based in Townsville, Queensland, Australia and was proclaimed on 20 April 1970[2] in Townsville. JCU is the second oldest university in Queensland and the first tertiary education institution in North Queensland. JCU is ranked among the best universities in Queensland and is one of only 17 Australian universities that was listed in the ARWU top 500 academic world universities in 2007.[3] As a multi-campus university with its main campuses in tropical regions, JCU is Australia's top tropical research university.[2] The main fields of research include marine sciences, biodiversity, sustainable management of tropical ecosystems, tropical health care and tourism.
History
The University is named after the British sea captain James Cook who popularised the discovery and potential colonial value of the east coast of Australia and whose exploratory vessel HM Bark Endeavour ran aground for repairs in North Queensland.
After being proclaimed on 20 April 1970 as an Act of Queensland Parliament, The University College of Townsville became James Cook University of North Queensland on 29 April 1970.[4] The official opening of the University was conducted by Queen Elizabeth II.[5] On 1 January 1982, JCU amalgamated with The Townsville College of Advanced Education located adjacent to the main campus in Douglas. The university established a presence in Cairns in 1987 and moved to its current location in the suburb of Smithfield in 1996. On 1 January 1991, the School of Art and Design of the Townsville College of TAFE was transferred to JCU.[4] The current name of James Cook University became official on 1 January 1998.[6] In 2003 the University opened an international campus referred to as JCUS in Singapore. The university further expanded its presence by establishing another campus in Brisbane, Qld in 2006.
A year after JCU's proclamation, Cyclone Althea struck the Townsville region. This, together with the destruction caused by Cyclone Tracy in Darwin 1974 prompted the establishment of a cyclone research facility.[7][5] The Cyclone Testing Station started out as small project of Professor Hugh Trollope and began its operations on 1 November 1977 as James Cook Cyclone Structural Testing Station.[7] The facility has since grown and changed its name to Cyclone Testing Station in 2002 to better indicate its scope of testing and services provided.[7] The Cyclone Testing Station operates as an independent unit of The School of Engineering and serves as an advising member to the Australian Standards committee in areas of structural design, more specifically wind actions.[8]
JCU Townsville $1 billion dollar redevelopment
The Discovery Rise project was announced in September 2007.[9] The $1 billion project is aimed at completely redeveloping the University campuses, faculties and attracting more students to JCU.[10] Initial stages of planning and design are currently under way and the project is estimated to be finished in 2015.[11] Included in the project will be major upgrading of student facilities, creation of extra on-campus residential housing, commercial site-leasing, a student village and upgrading of sports facilities.[12]
Campus and setting
Douglas Campus (Townsville)
JCU's main campus moved from a small campus in the coastal city of Townsville (Pimlico suburb) to a 386-hectare[13] area of bush land in the suburb of Douglas, near the army base and the lee of Mount Stuart, during the early 1970s. It has a widely spread out area of buildings in between native managed bushland. Close to the university is the new Townsville Hospital, CSIRO Research Facility and Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE.
Cairns Campus
The Cairns Campus of James Cook University is located 15 kilometres NNW of Cairns CBD, a city on the east coast of Australia, in the suburb of Smithfield. Opened in 1987, this campus is situated in a mountainous rainforest area of tropical North Queensland.[14]
Singapore International Campus
The Singapore International Campus was opened in 2003 as JCU's first offshore campus.[15] JCU Singapore is experiencing rapid growth in student numbers. There are currently around 1200 students studying with JCUS and it is projected that there will be more than 2500 students by the end of 2009.
On 18 July, JCU Singapore relocated to a new campus at 600 Upper Thomson Road. The grounds are suitable for a range of activities and sports facilities, and the buildings hold 30 classrooms, 9 laboratories and the administration office, provision for a retail shop (books and stationery, IT Support Centre, etc), cafeteria and Medical Centre. The campus is serviced by inexpensive food outlets within a 10-minute walking distance, good transport, and many options available for student accommodation.
Other facilities
Apart from the three main campuses, JCU has more than 20 specialist research centres and institutes throughout Queensland and New South Wales with the most prominent ones being in Mount Isa, Thursday Island, Mackay, Brisbane and Sydney.
The University is home to the world-class Cyclone Testing Station which operates as a self-funded unit within the School of Engineering and is a contributing member of the Australian Standards with regards to Wind Actions.[7][8]
Academia
The university serves as a catchment area for students in the whole region and in 2007 its student population was at 16,338 which includes 3,450 international students.[1]
The university is well known for its medicine, marine sciences[16], comparative genomics, engineering and tourism. In 2001 the university took in its first medical students in its then-new School of Medicine. An undergraduate veterinary degree was added to the university for the first time in 2006. The University is also offering degrees in astronomy, including a Doctor of Astronomy degree, through on-line courses.
In 2007, James Cook University again ranked in the list of the top 500 world universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.[3]
James Cook University became the seventh member of Innovative Research Universities Australia in 2007.[17]
Organisational Structure
The University is organised into Faculties, Schools and Departments/Divisions.
Faculty of Art, Education and Social Sciences
- School of Art and Social Sciences
- Department of Anthropology, Archaeology and Sociology
- Department of Humanities
- Department of Psychology
- Department of Social Work & Community Welfare, including Centre for Women's Studies
- School of Education
- School of Journalism
- School of Indigenous Australian Studies
Faculty of Law, Business and the Creative Arts
- School of Law
- School of Business
- School of Creative Arts
- Centre for Tropical Tourism and Hospitality
Faculty of Medicine, and Health and Molecular Sciences
- Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine
- Indigenous Health Unit
- Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health
- School of Medicine and Dentistry
- School of Nursing, Midwifery and Nutrition
- School of Pharmacy and Molecular Sciences
- School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences
- Public Health and Tropical Medicine
- Occupational Therapy
- Physiotherapy
- Speech Pathology
- Institute of Sport and Exercise Science
- School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Information Technology
- School of Earth and Environmental Science
- School of Engineering
- School of Marine and Tropical Biology
- School of Maths Physics and Information Technology
- Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research
- ARC Centre of Excellence - Coral Reef Studies
Rankings
Research produced by the Melbourne Institute in 2006 ranked Australian universities across seven main discipline areas: Arts & Humanities, Business & Economics, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, and Science. For each discipline, James Cook University was ranked[18]:
| Discipline | R 1 | No. | R 2 | No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arts & Humanities | 23 | 38 | 20 | 38 |
| Business & Economics | 30 | 39 | 32 | 38 |
| Education | 26 | 35 | 22 | 34 |
| Engineering | 18 | 28 | 25 | 28 |
| Law | 23 | 29 | 25 | 28 |
| Medicine | 12 | 14 | 13 | 13 |
| Science | 10 | 38 | 10 | 35 |
- R1 refers to Australian and overseas Academics' rankings in tables 3.1 - 3.7 of the report.
- R2 refers to the Articles and Research rankings in tables 5.1 - 5.7 of the report.
- No. refers to the total number of institutions in the table against which JCU is compared.
Student Association
Students are represented by the James Cook University Student Association[19] which includes sub organisations of Cairns Campus Student Association and the James Cook University Postgraduate Student Association [20], a member of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.
Among the services provided by the Student Association are academic support, general administrative help, student welfare and non-academic activities. The Association ensures that the University always take the need of students into account when making decisions.
The Student Association publishes the student newspaper, The Hack, fortnightly while the University is in session.
The current Student Association president is Kiel Shuttleworth, and Janine Aitken is the president of the Cairns Campus Student Association.[21] Jenny Stirling is the current president of the Postgraduate Student Association.[22]
Residential Colleges
The Douglas Campus has 8 on-campus residential colleges which can accommodate about 1,400 students. Student accommodation at the Cairns Campus can accommodate 240 students, however this accommodation do not make out part of the campus grounds and is directly opposite the campus.[23] The halls of residence/colleges are:
Douglas Campus
| College | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| St Mark's Colleges | 1965[24] |
| University Hall | 1967[25] |
| The John Flynn College | 1968[26] |
| St Paul's Colleges | 1969[27] |
| St Raphael's Colleges | 1971[28] |
| Western Hall | 1981 - 2007[25][29] |
| Western Courts | |
| Rotary International House | 1990[25] |
| George Roberts Hall | 2002[25] |
Situated in the tropical gardens of the campus, the halls of residence provide students with modern social and sporting facilities as well as the opportunity to choose between catered or self-catered accommodation. Accommodation is also available when the university is not in session.[30]
The individual colleges provide different services and support to students and are also situated in the tropical gardens of the campus.
Cairns Campus
Accommodation at the Student Lodge is available to any student from a tertiary education institution in the Cairns region. Services provided to students include transport to the city, catering, an on-site computer laboratory and recreational facilities.[31]
Notable alumni and staff
- Andrew Stoner, National Party Member for Oxley in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
- Annette Olson, Miss North Dakota 2006 and a contestant in the Miss America 2007
- Bruce Kapferer, Australian social anthropologist, Foundation Professor, 1996 - 1999
- Dale Spender, Australian feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant
- Eddie Mabo, indigenous community leader and human rights activist employed at JCU as a gardener-groundsman between 1967 - 1971.[32]
- George Musgrave, Awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters for his knowledge of traditional law
- Henry Reynolds, Australian Historian
- John Newfong, Aboriginal Australian Journalist
- Margaret Reynolds, former Australian Senator
- Mike Reynolds, Australian Labor Party member for Townsville and Speaker in the Queensland Legislative Assembly
- Paul Fairall, founding dean of University of South Australia was a law professor at JCU and the Dean of Law between 1998 - 2002 before becoming the Dean of Law at the University of Adelaide in 2002.[33]
- Percy Trezise, Awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters in recognition of outstanding service to the community of Far North Queensland
- Robert M. Carter, Geologist and climate change skeptic
- Silma Ihram, Pioneer of Muslim education in Australia
- Tommy George, Awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters for his knowledge of ecological expertise
- Tony Mooney, Former mayor of Townsville[34]
References
- ^ a b c "2007 Student Statistics". Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ a b "JCU Background". Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ a b "Academic Ranking of World Universities". Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ a b On reverse side of all JCU official Statement of Academic Record sheets printed after January 1998.
- ^ a b "Townsville History (City Council)". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Higher Education Legislation 1998". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ a b c d "Cyclone Testing Station". Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ a b Structural design actions, Part 2: Wind actions. Sydney & Wellington: Standards Australia & Standards New Zealand. 2005. ISBN 0 7337 4473 7.
- ^ "Discovery Rise Media Release". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ ABC News: James Cook Uni plans Townsville campus facelift
- ^ "Discovery Rise Timeline". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Discovery Rise Key Elements". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Douglas Campus Grounds". Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ "Cairns Location". Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ "JCU Singapore Background". Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ "Tropical research". Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ "Innovative Research Universities of Australia". Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ "Melbourne Institute Rankings" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ JCU Student Association
- ^ JCU Postgraduate Student Association
- ^ "JCU Student Association". Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ "JCU Postgraduate Student Association". Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ "Residential Colleges". Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ "Date of St Mark's College Establishment". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ^ a b c d "Dates of Halls of residence establishment". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ^ "Date of The John Flynn College Establishment". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ^ "Date of St Paul's College Establishment". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ^ "Date of St Raphael's College Establishment". Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ^ "Western Hall Closes". Retrieved 2007-11-13.
- ^ "Douglas Halls of Residence". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Cairns Student Lodge". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Eddie Mabo". Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ "Paul Fairall" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-16.
- ^ "Tony Mooney". Retrieved 2008-03-22.
