Originally founded in Rockhampton in 1967, CQUniversity Australia has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years seen by the remarkable growth in student numbers, new courses, new campuses, and infrastructure. Furthermore, the University's reputation has seen it emerge as one of Australia’s truly great universities.
CQUniversity Australia has been on a phenomenal trajectory in recent years and its remarkable growth in student numbers, new courses, new campuses, infrastructure, and reputation has seen it emerge as one of Australia’s truly great universities.
Originally founded in Rockhampton in 1967, as the Queensland Institute of Technology (QIT) Capricornia, it was granted full university status in 1992 and was named the University of Central Queensland. The University rebranded to CQUniversity in 2009 and now has more than 30 000 students. It has firmly established itself as one of the largest universities based in regional Australia, with campuses in Adelaide, Brisbane, Bundaberg, Cairns, Emerald, Gladstone, Mackay, Melbourne, Noosa, Perth, Rockhampton, Sydney, and Townsville. Along with these campuses, the University also operates study centers in Biloela, Broome, Busselton, Charters Towers, Karratha, and Yeppoon, and delivers programs in Cooma, Geraldton, and Port Pirie, thanks to partnerships with the respective university centers in those communities.
In 2014, CQUniversity merged with CQ TAFE bringing together more than 175 years of combined experience in the delivery of education and training and establishing Queensland’s first comprehensive, dual-sector university. As a result, CQUniversity now delivers more than 300 education and training offerings, from short courses and certificates, through to undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees. Study areas include apprenticeships, trades and training, business, accounting and law, creative, performing and visual arts, education and humanities, engineering and built environment, health, information technology, and digital media, psychology, social work, and community services, science and environment, and work and study preparation. As a pioneer in the delivery of distance education, CQUniversity also continues to be a leader in this area with almost half of the current student cohort made up of students studying off-campus, many of whom are based in rural and remote areas.
After more than half a century working with stakeholders in regional Australia, CQUniversity is now a renowned research institution in several key disciplines and the benchmark leader for how universities should engage and collaborate with communities and industry. Its applied research focus is oriented towards real-world outcomes, with the purpose of providing solutions to challenges and identifying new opportunities for advancement in our regions and beyond.
In 2018, this research focus saw CQUniversity achieve Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) results of ‘above’ or ‘well above’ world standard in 13 categories of research including Mathematical Sciences, Applied Mathematics, Horticultural Production, Engineering, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Psychology, Agriculture and Vet Sciences, Agricultural, Land and Farm Management, Public Health and Health Services and Nursing.
CQUniversity is proud to be recognized as Australia’s most inclusive university with some of the highest ratios of students from disadvantaged, mature age, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and first-in-family backgrounds. This inclusive approach and commitment to access and participation mean the University defines itself by who it embraces, rather than who it excludes.
Graduates from CQUniversity also have some of the best employment outcomes in Australia, with recent data released by the Graduate Outcomes Survey indicating that 79.9 percent of domestic undergraduate students find full-time employment within four months of graduation, compared to the national average of 71.9 percent. Data released by the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) also shows that CQUniversity outperforms the majority of Australian universities when it comes to the overall student experience and graduates salary outcomes.
CQUniversity places a strong emphasis on social innovation and global outreach and fosters a number of key partnerships with communities, industry, and government, both in Australia and overseas. This commitment to engagement and social advancement has led to CQUniversity being recognized as Australia’s first and only Changemaker Campus by Ashoka U, an exclusive global social innovation group made up of only 40 education institutions across the world.
CQUniversity’s unique vision for diversity, outreach, engagement, research, learning and teaching, and inclusiveness, combined with its growth aspirations and continued expansion of student success, research excellence, social innovation, and community engagement, has led to it being recognized within the top 600 universities in the world by the prestigious Times Higher Education World Rankings, and among the world’s best ‘young universities’ by both the Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings.