James Cook University

Overview

James Cook University

James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. Established in 1961 as the University College of Townsville, it is the second oldest degree-granting university in Queensland. It adopted its current name through an Act of Queensland Parliament in 1970. JCU is also among the top Australian public universities, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programs to domestic and international students.

James Cook University Key Statistics

JCU is organized into several faculties. These include the Faculty of Law Business and the Creative Arts, the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences, the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and the Faculty of Arts, Education & Social Sciences. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in engineering, agriculture, environmental science, and medicine.

It has more than 20,000 students, including roughly 13,000 undergraduates and over 5,000 postgraduates. The university also employs over 3,500 academic and administrative staff members across its multiple campus locations. These campuses include the Nguma-bada campus, the Bebegu Yumba campus, and the Singapore International campus.

Other James Cook University key statistics are its academic and administrative facilities and services that include residential halls, student hubs, sports stadiums, and a comprehensive library network that maintains featured collections, such as the Bragge Collection, the Sir Charles Maurice Yonge Collection, the Shaw Collection of Australian Art and Culture, and the North Queensland Collection.

James Cook University Research

JCU is one of the top-performing research institutions in Australia. It generates research funding from the grants awarded by the Australian government, the Commonwealth Capital Funding, and the Higher Degree Stipend and Graduate Research Scheme Funding.

The top three James Cook University research fields are medicine, ecology, and biology. Its researchers have also attended international research conferences and symposiums, such as WebSci: Web Science, GPC: Grid and Pervasive Computing, and CHI: Human Factors in Computing Systems.

The university’s most cited research article is Lozano et al.’s (2012) “Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010,” which was published in The Lancet and has 14,630 citations to date. Its second most popular research work is Rockström et al.’s (2009) “A safe operating space for humanity,” which was published in Nature and has been cited 11,288 times.

Meanwhile, JCU’s third most cited research output is Murray et al.’s (2012) “Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990-2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.” This article was published in The Lancet and has so far been cited 9,240 times.

In addition, it is also home to several James Cook University research centers and institutes. These include the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, the Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research, the Fishing and Fisheries Research Centre, and the Cairns Institute. Its other research centers and institutes are the Comparative Genomics Centre, the Anton Breinl Centre for Public Health and Tropical Medicine, the ABC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and the Australian Tropical Herbarium.