University of Western Australia

The University of Western Australia is a public research university in Perth, founded in 1911 as the state’s first university. Its main Crawley campus occupies about 65 hectares on the Swan River west of the city center, with additional sites for medicine and rural teaching. It is a comprehensive sandstone university and a member of Australia’s Group of Eight, with a resources-state setting that has shaped its science and engineering profile.

Work is grouped in faculties covering arts, business, law, engineering and mathematical sciences, health and medical sciences, and science. Graduate strengths include earth and mining-related science, marine and environmental science, medicine, and law. Clinical training uses Perth teaching hospitals; marine and earth-science students use coastal field sites. The Conservatorium of Music and several research institutes sit on or beside the Crawley campus.

About 25,000 students are enrolled, including a substantial postgraduate minority and an international share of about 20 percent, with students from the rest of Australia, East and Southeast Asia, and elsewhere. Academic staff number in the thousands. Nobel laureates Barry Marshall and Robin Warren are associated with the medical school’s work on Helicobacter pylori. Alumni include former prime minister Bob Hawke.

Graduate study includes coursework master’s degrees, the Juris Doctor and other professional qualifications, and research master’s and doctoral supervision in the sciences and medicine. Research degrees are supervisor-led; professional programs are cohort-based. The calendar is the Australian two-semester year. Scholarships include university awards and Australian Government Research Training Program places. Campus life is riverfront, with colleges and rentals in Nedlands and Crawley and the city a short bus or bicycle ride away.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Western Australia lists 14 graduate programs across 12 subjects, all of them master's programs, with the widest choice in business & management, law and agriculture, food & forestry. University of Western Australia holds rank 137 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.