Western Sydney University

Overview

Western Sydney University is a public university based in the Greater Western Sydney region of Australia. The university is considered as one of the leading universities under 50 years old in Australia and the world.

The university currently offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a wide variety of subject areas, including business, creative industries, construction management, criminology and policing, and tourism and urban planning. Western Sydney University is also known as the only university in New South Wales to offer a metropolitan Bachelor of Policing program. The university has also received high rankings in the subject areas of nursing, sociology, communication and media studies, psychology, and agriculture and forestry.

The university also offers higher degree research programs at the master's and doctorate levels in fields such as creative arts, education, and clinical psychology. Aside from these on-campus programs, Western Sydney University offers online degrees in accounting, human resource management, marketing, and cybersecurity and behavior.

Western Sydney University started out as the University of Westen Sydney, which opened its doors in 1989 by an act of the New South Wales Parliament. This act led to the creation of a federated network university based on the Hawkesbury Agricultural College and the Nepean College of Advanced Education. Eventually, the act that established this university network was amended, paving the way for the University of Western Sydney to operate as a single multi-campus university starting 2001.

Today, Western Sydney University comprises more than 10 schools spread across 12 campuses. These campuses are located in various cities and suburbs across the Greater Western Sydney region, including Liverpool, Lithgow, Nirimba, Parramatta, Bankstown, Blacktown, and Campbelltown. The university also maintains an offshore Vietnam campus, which offers bachelor's and master's programs in business and business administration.

Over the years, Western Sydney University has been recognized for the quality of its research. The university is currently focused on the research themes of urban living, sustainability, and health and wellbeing. According to the Excellence in Research for Australia assessment, most of the university's research is "above world standard," particularly in the fields of agricultural and veterinary sciences, complementary and alternative medicine, ecology, cultural studies, language, applied mathematics, and materials engineering.

To accommodate its numerous research projects, Western Sydney University is home to centralized and specialist facilities, institutes, and centers, including the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering, the Centre for Smart Modern Construction, and the Mass Spectrometry Facility.