Facts & figures
University_
The transformative power of education
Australia’s most employable graduates learn with us
Generous scholarships, entrepreneurial programs and industry placements equip our students with the support and leadership qualities they need to excel in futures they haven’t even imagined yet.
- Commitment to double scholarships for those from disadvantaged backgrounds
- Ranked first in Australia for graduate employability and sustainability
- Students work on real business problems with ANZ, Adobe, Coles, IMB
- Largest study abroad program in Australia.
With a global community of more than 400,000 alumni, we prepare the curious, the bold, the lifelong learners to step up and lead, no matter their background.
“Education is the most powerful tool yet discovered to overcome disadvantage and inequality,” Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Mark Scott AO, says.
“We want to ensure the doors of our university are open to all students of great potential and create an environment where they will flourish, no matter what their background.”
To support this ethos, we recently announced plans to more than double our scholarship support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, with an additional 1,000 students set to receive generous scholarships to cover tuition, costs of living, mentoring and support programs. They will also enable more undergraduate students to undertake life-changing global exchange programs and industry placements.
Scholarships for tomorrow’s leaders
Laurena Basutu, UN Women Australia MBA Scholarship recipient.
Laurena Basutu, this year’s recipient of the University’s UN Women Australia MBA scholarship, migrated from Zimbabwe to regional New South Wales and has seen firsthand how access to infrastructure can break down barriers and tackle inequality.
“Growing up in Zimbabwe I was constantly reminded that I was one of the lucky few, born after independence in 1980, whose future would not be curtailed by colonialism. I would have access to opportunities that my mother and her mother before her could only dream of,” Laurena says.
“It was not until I moved to Australia in 2004 and took the free school bus to Narooma High School [on the NSW south coast] that I understood what true access was. That bus trip changed my life. It gave me the structural support to access an education that would not have been available to me otherwise. Beyond that, it opened my eyes to the fact that no-one can be free without equal access.”
Laurena now works at Transport for NSW and her long-term goal is to create sustainable infrastructure that gives women physical, economic and social access to opportunities.
Bachelor of Laws student, Louise Press, said her scholarship helped ignite her passion for social justice and opened the door to the range of alternative careers available with a law degree.
“The financial assistance offered by this scholarship allowed me to continue volunteering at the Aboriginal Legal Service and Redfern Legal Centre,” Louise says. “These experiences re-ignited my passion for social justice whilst exposing me to the realities of public interest lawyering and the lived experiences of some of the most marginalised members of our community.
“Without the Scholarship, I would not have had the financial resources to continue volunteering, and therefore would not have gained the experience, insight, and skills necessary to work in this space.”
Fresh thinking for business problems
In the modern workplace, employees are required to continually update their skills to be successful. So how do we educate the next generation of students to equip them with the necessary skills, resilience and experience to secure their future in a rapidly changing environment?
As part of our Industry and Community Project Units (ICPUs), students address complex problems on behalf of our 70+ partners, which include Adobe, AGL, Coles, IBM, KPMG, NSW Health, Westpac and many more.
With Adobe, students are looking at “how we close the digital skills gap?” and are proposing solutions on how we should enhance the future of education.
Adobe challenged our students to identify creative ways that businesses, educators and governments can tackle the digital skills shortages and provide Australian graduates with the skills they need to lead effectively in the contemporary digital workforce.
Fostering an entrepreneurial spirit
Founders of BioScout, (L-R) Lewis Collins, Saron Berhane, Henry Brindle and Josh Wilson, with new team member and current student, Jesse Morris.
Launched in 2017 on the back of a PhD project, BioScout is a start-up that is shaking up Australia's agricultural sector with biotechnology that promises to detect disease among crops, prior to infection.
Growing the idea to commercialisation in just three years, the team behind BioScout put their early success down to the opportunities for student entrepreneurship available at the University, which includes the Innovation Awards and award-winning start-up accelerator program INCUBATE.
“From idea to even starting to commercialise takes the average piece of agricultural technology 10 years. So, farmers are always surprised that our turnaround was so quick. For me, it's a great chance to show that the University and students can work together to build something pretty amazing,” Lewis Collins, BioScout CEO, says.
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