Griffith University

Established:	1971
Type:	Public
Chancellor:	Leneen Forde
Vice-Chancellor:	Ian O'Connor
Deputy V-C:	Lesley Johnson ; John Dewar (academic)
Staff:	3,500 FTE
Students:	Over 37,000
Undergraduates:	31,000
Postgraduates:	6,000
Location:	Gold Coast and Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Affiliations:	ASAIHL
Website:	http://www.griffith.edu.au/

Griffith University is a public university based on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, Australia. The total enrolment is 31,000 undergraduate students and 6000 postgraduate students. Griffith has a large range of learning areas, including Arts, Business, Law, Health, and Music.

History

The university was formally founded in 1971 and opened its doors in 1975 to 451 students in four schools: Australian Environmental Studies, Humanities, Modern Asian Studies and Science. The University started with its Nathan campus, and several of its campuses are distinctive for their nature based settings within large urban agglomerations. The clusters of buildings, sports facilities, bushland reserves and recreational areas are connected by integrated networks of walking paths. The university was distinguished by its 'problem-based' rather than disciplinary approach to course design and research. The university now has a full suite of programs including arts, education, medicine, dentistry, engineering, business, science, and law.

The University is named after the former Premier of Queensland, and High Court of Australia judge, Sir Samuel Griffith, who was also the principal author of the Australian constitution.

Academic Structure

Arts, Education and Law

• School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
• School of Humanities
• School of Languages and Linguistics
• Griffith Film School
• Queensland College of Art
• Queensland Conservatorium
• School of Education and Professional Studies (Brisbane, Logan)
• School of Education and Professional Studies (Gold Coast)
• Griffith Law School

Business

• Griffith Business School
• Centre for Financial Independence and Education

Griffith Business School received the most prestigious international accreditation for business school AACSB in 2008 . Griffith University become part of an elite group that makes up less than 5 percent of the world’s business schools that have earned business and/or accounting accreditation. The newest accreditations raise the total number of institutions that maintain specialized AACSB accreditation for their business schools to 559, with 460 based in the United States and 99 based outside of the United States.

Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology

• School of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences
• Griffith School of Engineering
• School of Information and Communication Technology
• Griffith School of Environment

Health

• School of Medicine
• School of Pharmacy
• School of Dentistry and Oral Health
• School of Anatomy
• School of Human Services
• School of Medical Science
• School of Nursing and Midwifery
• School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science
• School of Psychology
• School of Public Health
• School of Applied Science

Campuses

Griffith University has campuses located at the Gold Coast and Nathan, Mt Gravatt and Logan in the outer suburbs of Brisbane and the Queensland Conservatorium in Inner Brisbane. Mt Gravatt campus is also home to the Queensland Institute of Business and Technology. The Nathan Campus was designed by prominent Australian architect Robin Gibson and was the founding campus of the University. The university has a campus on High Street, Southport specifically designed and built for Oral Health and Medicine students called the "Centre for Medicine and Oral Health". It contains lecture theatres, cadaver labs, pathology labs and a dental clinic which serves the public. Building has commenced for a new University Hospital at the Gold Coast campus, which is due to open in Dec 2012 and will replace most functions of the Centre for Medicine and Oral Health.

Sporting, social and cultural

Griffith University has a wide array of cultural, intellectual, sporting and social groups. Its Student Guild is an organisation within the university which takes care of these clubs, as well as student issues, accommodation, employment, publication, events, sport and recreation.

Established in 1981, the Griffith University Aikido Club was one of the first aikido dojos established in Brisbane . Today it is active at Nathan, Logan and South Brisbane and has more than 100 members. The Griffith University Rugby Union Club, established by Phil Verheijen in 2002, were runners up in the Northern University Games in 2005 and are consistently ranked in the top 6 at Australian University Games. Past captains include Nick Hurrell (2006), who is now an international rugby representative of Hong Kong.

The Griffith University Australian Football Club (GUAFC) is an Australian rules football club formed in 2001, competing in the AFLQ State Association. The Griffith University Gladiators finished runners up in two of their first five seasons in the AFLSQ. The club plays out of Griffith's Nathan Campus, which features one of Queensland's leading amateur Australian football grounds with state-of-the-art playing lights and club rooms.^{[citation needed]}

Student Union and representation

Griffith University students are uniquely represented by two statutory embedded student organisations. The Griffith University Student Representative Council (GUSRC) represents undergraduate students and the Griffith University Postgraduate Students Association (GUPSA) represents post-graduate students in all campuses apart from the Gold Coast. GUPSA is a constituent member of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations. Unique to the Gold Coast is the Student Guild (GUSG) which represents all students from this campus and holds an administrative structure that is apparently independent to the university.

Notable alumni

• Andrew Fraser, Queensland Treasurer
• Steven Bradbury, Olympic Gold medal winning speed skater
• Sara Carrigan, Olympic Gold medal winning cyclist
• Peta-Kaye Croft, Member of Queensland Legislative Assembly
• Shannon Eckstein, 2002 world champion Ironman
• Justine Elliot, Federal Member for Richmond
• Gary Hardgrave, former Federal Member for Moreton (1996-2007)
• Jeong Ryeo-won, Korean Singer/Actress
• Libby Lenton, Olympic gold medal winning swimmer
• Brett Mason, Senator for Queensland
• Julie Owens, Federal Member for Parramatta (Queensland Conservatorium of Music)
• Rajnesh Singh, engineer and entrepreneur
• Karen Tso, television journalist
• Ross Vasta, former Federal Member for Division of Bonner (2004-2007)
• Barbara Vernon, birth activist
• David Vernon, writer
• Robert Warren, musician
• Lucy Decoutere, ex-Actress