Architectural education in Australia varies depending on the university offering the course. All Australian architecture schools and programs have recently moved to some variation on the 3 + 2 Bologna model, with a three-year undergraduate degree, followed by a two-year course-work based Master of Architecture professional degree.
Some Universities also require 6–12 months of practice work experience between the two degrees. Registration as an architect is via state-based boards and requires a minimum of two years practice experience under the supervision of a registered architect.
In addition there are double degrees offered by many universities, such as those combining architecture with construction or landscape architecture. Some universities also offer masters programs in architecture via coursework or research. Many architecture faculties offer related programs in landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design, property and construction.
Entry to Australian architecture programs is highly competitive and the proportion of students at some architecture schools from outside Australia is very high, up to 40%.
Universities in Australia offering professionally accredited architecture programs:
UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
The University of Adelaide is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university’s main campus is located on North Terrace in the Adelaide city centre, adjacent to the Art Gallery of South Australia, the South Australian Museum, and the State Library of South Australia.
The university has four campuses, three in South Australia: North Terrace campus in the city, Roseworthy campus at Roseworthy and Waite campus at Urrbrae, and one in Melbourne, Victoria. The university also operates out of other areas such as Thebarton, the National Wine Centre in the Adelaide Park Lands, and in Singapore through the Ngee Ann-Adelaide Education Centre.
The University of Adelaide is composed of five faculties, with each containing constituent schools. These include the Faculty of Engineering, Computer, and Mathematical Sciences, the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of the Professions, and the Faculty of Sciences. It is a member of the Group of Eight and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. The university is also a member of the Sandstone universities, which mostly consist of colonial-era universities within Australia.
The University is associated with five Nobel laureates, constituting one-third of Australia’s total Nobel Laureates, and 110 Rhodes scholars. The university has generated a considerable impact on the public life of South Australia, having educated many of the state’s leading businesspeople, lawyers, medical professionals and politicians. The university has been associated with many notable achievements and discoveries, such as the discovery and development of penicillin, the development of space exploration, sunscreen, the military tank, Wi-Fi, polymer banknotes and X-ray crystallography, and the study of viticulture and oenology.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The University of South Australia is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australia with approximately 37,000 students.
The university was founded in its current form in 1991 with the merger of the South Australian Institute of Technology established in 1889 as the South Australian School of Mines and Industries and the South Australian College of Advanced Education established in 1856. The legislation to establish and name the new University of South Australia was introduced by the Hon Mike Rann MP, Minister of Employment and Further Education.
Under the University’s Act, its original mission was “to preserve, extend and disseminate knowledge through teaching, research, scholarship and consultancy, and to provide educational programs that will enhance the diverse cultural life of the wider community”.
UniSA is among the world’s top newer universities, ranked in the World’s Top 50 Under 50 by both the Quacarelli Symonds World University Ranking #29 and Times Higher Education #46. It has two Adelaide city centre campuses, two Adelaide metropolitan campuses, and two South Australian regional campuses.
UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
The University of Western Australia is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university’s main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilities elsewhere. UWA was established in 1911 by an act of the Parliament of Western Australia and began teaching students two years later.
It is the sixth-oldest university in Australia and was Western Australia’s only university until the establishment of Murdoch University in 1973. Because of its age and reputation, UWA is classed one of the “sandstone universities”, an informal designation given to the oldest university in each state. The university also belongs to several more formal groupings, including the Group of Eight and the Matariki Network of Universities. In recent years, UWA has generally been ranked either in the bottom half or just outside the world’s top 100 universities, depending on the system used. Another defining characteristic of UWA is that it has retained its Convocation as an integral part of its governance structure.
All graduates of UWA are automatically life-long members of the University through Convocation which grants them the right to attend the Annual General Meetings, to elect two members of the UWA Senate and to review any changes to University legislation. Graduates of UWA include one Prime Minister of Australia, five Justices of the High Court of, one Governor of the Reserve Bank, various federal cabinet ministers, and seven of Western Australia’s eight most recent premiers. In 2018 alumnus mathematician Akshay Venkatesh was a recipient of the Fields Medal. As of 2021, the university had produced 106 Rhodes Scholars. Two members of the UWA faculty, Barry Marshall and Robin Warren won Nobel Prizes as a result of research at the university.
CURTIN UNIVERSITY
Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology, is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia from 1941 to 1945, and is the largest university in Western Australia, with 59,939 students in 2021.
Curtin was conferred university status after legislation was passed by the Parliament of Western Australia in 1986. Since then, the university has expanded its presence and has campuses in Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai and Mauritius, and has ties with 90 exchange universities in 20 countries.The university comprises five main faculties with over 95 specialists centres. It had a campus in Sydney from 2005 to 2016.
Curtin University is a member of the Australian Technology Network. Curtin University is active in research in a range of academic and practical fields. Curtin is the only Western Australian university whose students have won the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering’s Postgraduate Student Gold Medal as at 2020.
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia’s second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb north of Melbourne’s central business district, with several other campuses located across Victoria.
Incorporated in the 19th century by the colony of Victoria, the University of Melbourne is one of Australia’s six sandstone universities and a member of the Group of Eight, Universitas 21, Washington University’s McDonnell International Scholars Academy, and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities. Since 1872, many residential colleges have become affiliated with the university, providing accommodation for students and faculty, and academic, sporting and cultural programs. There are ten colleges located on the main campus and in nearby suburbs.
The university comprises ten separate academic units and is associated with numerous institutes and research centres, including the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and the Grattan Institute. The university has fifteen graduate schools, including the Melbourne Business School, the Melbourne Law School and the Melbourne Medical School.
Times Higher Education ranked the University of Melbourne first in Australia and 34th globally in 2023, while the Academic Ranking of World Universities places it 35th in the world. In the QS World University Rankings 2022, the university ranks 8th for graduate employability and 2nd in Australia, behind the University of Sydney. Four Australian prime ministers and five governors-general have graduated from the University of Melbourne. Eight Nobel Laureates have taught, studied and researched at the University of Melbourne, the most of any Australian university.
The university’s coat of arms is a blue shield on which a depiction of “Victory” in white colour holds her laurel wreath over the stars of the Southern Cross. The motto, Postera crescam, is written on a scroll beneath the shield.
MONASH UNIVERSITY
Monash University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a number of campuses, four of which are in Victoria, and one in Malaysia. Monash also has a research and teaching centre in Prato, Italy, a graduate research school in Mumbai, India and graduate schools in Suzhou, China and Tangerang, Indonesia. Monash University courses are also delivered at other locations, including South Africa.
Monash is home to major research facilities, including the Monash Law School, the Australian Synchrotron, the Monash Science Technology Research and Innovation Precinct (STRIP), the Australian Stem Cell Centre, Victorian College of Pharmacy, and 100 research centres and 17 co-operative research centres. In 2019, its total revenue was over $2.72 billion (AUD), with external research income around $462 million. In 2019, Monash enrolled over 55,000 undergraduate and over 25,000 graduate students. It has more applicants than any other university in the state of Victoria.
Monash is a member of Australia’s Group of Eight research universities, a member of the ASAIHL, and is the only Australian member of the M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centers, Universities and National Academies. Monash is one of the Australian universities to be ranked in the École des Mines de Paris ranking on the basis of the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies.
RMIT UNIVERSITY
RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia.
Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, science, and technology, in response to the industrial revolution in Australia. It was a private college for more than a hundred years before merging with the Phillip Institute of Technology to become a public university in 1992. It has an enrolment of around 95,000 higher and vocational education students, making it the largest dual-sector education institution in Australia. With an annual revenue of around A $1.5 billion, it is also one of the wealthiest universities in Australia. It is rated a five star university by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and is ranked 15th in the World for art and design subjects in the QS World University Rankings, making it the top art and design university in Australia and Oceania.
The main campus of RMIT is situated on the northern edge of the historic Hoddle Grid in the city centre of Melbourne. It has two satellite campuses in the city’s northern suburbs of Brunswick and Bundoora and a training site situated on the RAAF Williams base in the western suburb of Point Cook. It also has a training site at Bendigo Airport in the Victorian city of Bendigo and a research site in Hamilton near the Grampians National Park. In Asia, it has two branch campuses in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and a training centre in Da Nang in Vietnam as well as teaching partnerships in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. In Europe, it has a research and collaboration centre in the Spanish city of Barcelona.
DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia.
Its main campuses are in Melbourne’s Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, Geelong Waterfront and Warrnambool, as well as the online Cloud Campus. Deakin also has learning centres in Dandenong and Werribee, all in the state of Victoria.
As of 2021, Deakin University is ranked among the top 1% of universities in the world, is ranked one of the top 26 young universities in the world, is the 3rd highest ranked university in the world for Sport Science, is one of the top 29 universities in the world for Nursing, is one of the top 32 universities in the world for Education, and is among fewer than 5% of Business Schools worldwide with Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation.
Deakin’s research activities are growing. 100% of Deakin research was rated at or above world standard in the 2018 Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) ratings. Its combined research funding increased from A $4.5 million in 1997 to A $47.2 million in 2015. In 2020, the university’s research income was $87.6 million, with 247 Higher degree by Research completions.
Deakin University consistently ranks highly in undergraduate student satisfaction; in the 2019 Student Experience Survey, Deakin had the fourth highest student satisfaction rating nationally, the highest student satisfaction rating out of all Australian public universities and the highest student satisfaction rating out of all Victorian universities. Deakin has had the highest undergraduate student satisfaction ratings out of all Victorian universities every year since 2010 and has consistently placed in the top two for highest postgraduate student satisfaction out of all Victorian universities every year since 2010.
UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA
The University of Tasmania is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia’s fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university’s residential colleges, first proposed in 1840 in Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Franklin’s Legislative Council, was modeled on the Oxford and Cambridge colleges, and was founded in 1846, making it the oldest tertiary institution in the country. The university is a sandstone university, a member of the international Association of Commonwealth Universities,and the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning.
The university offers various undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of disciplines, and has links with 20 specialist research institutes and co-operative research centres. Its Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies has strongly contributed to the university’s multiple 5 rating scores for excellence in research awarded by the Australian Research Council. The university also delivers tertiary education at the Australian Maritime College, the national centre for maritime education, training and research.
UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
The University of New South Wales, also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive universities.
Established in 1949, UNSW is a research university, ranked 44th in the world in the 2021 QS World University Rankings and 67th in the world in the 2021 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. It is one of the members of Universitas 21, a global network of research universities. It has international exchange and research partnerships with over 200 universities around the world.
According to the 2021 QS World University Rankings by Subject, UNSW is ranked top 20 in the world for Law, Accounting and Finance, and 1st in Australia for Mathematics, Engineering and Technology. UNSW is also one of the leading Australian universities in Medicine, where the median ATAR of its medical school students is higher than any other Australian undergraduate medical school.
The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. The main campus is in the Sydney suburb of Kensington, 7 kilometres from the Sydney central business district. The creative arts faculty, UNSW Art & Design, is located in Paddington, and subcampuses are located in the Sydney CBD as well as several other suburbs, including Randwick and Coogee. Research stations are located throughout the state of New South Wales.
The university’s second largest campus, known as UNSW Canberra at ADFA abbreviated to UNSW Canberra, is situated in Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory. ADFA is the military academy of the Australian Defence Force, and UNSW Canberra is the only national academic institution with a defence focus.
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
The University of Sydney, also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country’s six sandstone universities. The university comprises eight academic faculties and university schools, through which it offers bachelor, master and doctoral degrees.
The University consistently ranks highly both nationally and internationally. QS World University Rankings ranked the university top 40 in the world. The university is also ranked first in Australia and fourth in the world for QS graduate employability. It is one of the first universities in the world to admit students solely on academic merit, and opened their doors to women on the same basis as men.
Five Nobel and two Crafoord laureates have been affiliated with the university as graduates and faculty. The university has educated eight Australian prime ministers, including incumbent Anthony Albanese; two governors-general of Australia; thirteen premiers of New South Wales, including incumbent Dominic Perrottet; 20 justices of the High Court of Australia, including four chief justices. The university has produced 110 Rhodes Scholars and 19 Gates Scholars.
The University of Sydney is a member of the Group of Eight, CEMS, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY
The University of Technology Sydney is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021, UTS enrols 45,221 students through its 9 faculties and schools.
The University is regarded as one of the world’s leading young universities ranked 1st in Australia and 11th in the world by the 2021 QS World University Rankings Young Universities.
UTS is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network, and is a member of Universities Australia and the Worldwide Universities Network.
QUEENLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Queensland University of Technology is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area viz. Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The university in its current form was founded in 1989, when the Queensland Institute of Technology was made a university through the Queensland University of Technology Act 1988, with the resulting Queensland University of Technology beginning its operations from January 1989. In 1990, the Brisbane College of Advanced Education merged with QUT.
In 2020, QUT has 52,672 students, employs 5,049 full-time equivalent staff members, a total revenue of $1.054 billion, and a total expenditure of $1.028 billion.
QUT was a member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, but withdrew participation on 28 September 2018.
UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
The University of Queensland is a public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone universities, an informal designation of the oldest university in each state. The University of Queensland was ranked second nationally by the Australian Research Council in 2018 and third in Australia based on the average of four major global university league tables. The University of Queensland is a founding member of edX, Australia’s leading Group of Eight and the international research-intensive Association of Pacific Rim Universities.
The main St Lucia campus occupies much of the riverside inner suburb of St Lucia, southwest of the Brisbane central business district. Other UQ campuses and facilities are located throughout Queensland, the largest of which are the Gatton campus and the Mayne Medical School. UQ’s overseas establishments include UQ North America office in Washington D.C., and the UQ-Ochsner Clinical School in Louisiana, United States.
The university offers associate, bachelor, master, doctoral, and higher doctorate degrees through a college, a graduate school, and six faculties. UQ incorporates over one hundred research institutes and centres offering research programs, such as the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Boeing Research and Technology Australia Centre, the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, and the UQ Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation. Recent notable research of the university include pioneering the invention of the HPV vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, developing a COVID-19 vaccine that was in human trials, and the development of high-performance superconducting MRI magnets for portable scanning of human limbs.
UQ counts two Nobel laureates over a hundred Olympians winning numerous gold medals, and 117 Rhodes Scholars among its alumni and former staff. UQ’s alumni also include University of California, San Francisco Chancellor Sam Hawgood, the first female Governor-General of Australia Dame Quentin Bryce, former President of King’s College London Ed Byrne, member of United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Council for Science and Technology Max Lu, Oscar and Emmy awards winner Geoffrey Rush, triple Grammy Award winner Tim Munro, former CEO and Chairman of Dow Chemical Andrew N. Liveris, and current director of multiple organisations including IBM.
UNIVERSITY OF CANBERA
The University of Canberra is a public research university with its main campus located in Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The campus is within walking distance of Westfield Belconnen, and 8.7 km from Canberra’s Civic Centre. UC offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses covering five faculties: Health, Art and Design, Business, Government and Law, Education, and Science and Technology.
UC partners with two local ACT schools: UC Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra and University of Canberra High School Kaleen. The University of Canberra College provides pathways into university for domestic and international students.
UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE
The University of Newcastle , informally known as Newcastle University, is a public university in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1965, it has a primary campus in the Newcastle suburb of Callaghan. The university also operates campuses in Ourimbah, Port Macquarie, Singapore, Newcastle CBD and Sydney CBD.
Historically, the University of Newcastle Medical School has implemented the problem-based learning system for its undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine program – a system later mandated for use by the Australian Medical Council throughout Australia. It pioneered use of the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test in the early 1990s. UMAT has since been accepted widely by different medical schools across Australia as an additional selection criteria.
The University of Newcastle is a member of the Australian Technology Network, Universities Australia and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
