Founded in 1946, in a spirit of post-war optimism, our role was to help realise Australia’s potential as the world recovered from a global crisis and that vision has been our mission ever since.

Today, we work not only to ensure our national prosperity, but to help Australia tackle the complex challenges facing humanity, like the climate crisis and global pandemics.

We are an inclusive community open to all people who have the talent and passion to succeed, regardless of their background. We seek to reflect our nation and our region.

Connections are important to us – be they to people or to country. We connect both locally, where our ties to the Australian Government and policy makers enable our researchers to help shape national policy, and on the international stage, where our trusted experts act as a conduit for Australian contribution to the global community.

Our campus is a meeting place for our community to converge and collaborate, as First Nations people have done on these lands for thousands of years.
What we do can be difficult work, but it’s work we proudly do – because connecting talented people with diverse perspectives, equipping and encouraging them to address the most complex of tomorrow’s problems, and ensuring Australia’s future is not just our approach – it’s also our role and responsibility as Australia’s national university, and it’s a responsibility from which we’ll never waiver.