Charles Darwin University

The seed of CDU dates back to Darwin in the 1950s. With no offices or permanent staff, adult education classes in typing, shorthand and French were first conducted in school premises and taught by teachers working outside of normal hours. Darwin’s Adult Education Centre’s first full-time Principal Harold Garner brought tremendous energy to the role. On enrolment day the Centre resembled an ant’s nest, thriving with activity. It was the first institution to offer post-secondary studies in the Northern Territory. In March 1974 Darwin’s Adult Education Centre graduated to become the Darwin Community College. Nine months later, on Christmas eve, Cyclone Tracey struck Darwin, the college directly in its path in the maximum destruction zone.

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The Darwin Community College was later known as the Darwin Institute of Technology. Talk of a university in the Territory had been brewing as far back as 1950s.

The objectives – to stop the brain drain south, conduct research into the Territory’s unique desert and tropical environments, and aid in development towards statehood. This would take another name change for the Darwin Community College. The Federal Government’s introduction of the Unified National System finally come to fruition in 1989, with the establishment of the Northern Territory University. There was one last merger, this time with the Alice Spring’s Centralian College in 2003, and one last name change to ‘Charles Darwin University’(CDU).

Today

Territorians no longer have to send their children away from home for a University education. From this year (2011), students, for the first time ever, need not leave the Territory to become doctors. A five-star rating for research from the Good Universities Guide, acknowledges CDU’s place on the world stage. Providing research that is helping to solve global challenges and close to home.

There is no better example of this than the Menzies School of Health Research which is improving indigenous health outcomes in tropical and Central Australia. CDU is the only Australian university to offer the full spectrum of education options from senior secondary, through to VET, undergraduate and post graduate degrees. The Northern Territory community has responded to this with the highest per capita participation in Higher Education in the country. CDU has 6,000 students from interstate, and around the world from 100 nationalities. The University’s adaptive and altruistic culture has allowed it to not only survive, but thrive in a changing world.

Faculty of Engineering, Health, Science and the Environment

• School of Engineering and Information Technology
• School of Health
• School of Environmental and Life Sciences
• Research Centre for Health and Wellbeing
• Centre for Hydrocarbon Research, Education & Training
• Centre for Renewable Energy and Low Emission Technology
• Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods

Faculty of Law, Education, Business and Arts

• School of Law and Business
• School of Education
• School of Creative Arts and Humanities
• School of Academic Language and Learning
• Centre for School Leadership, Learning and Development
• The Northern Institute

study-abroad

Student_Prospectus_2012

2012 International Prospectus

Course-Guide-2012

Damon Van Der Schuit – Bachelor of Behavioural Science, Arizona and Florida universities, USA

"Completing units of my degree whilst meeting people from all around the world, exploring foreign environments, customs and culture has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life."