University of Adelaide

About

The University of Adelaide was founded in 1874 with a noble goal: to prepare, for South Australia, young leaders shaped by education, rather than birth or wealth, in a settlement free of old-world social and religious inequalities.

By every measure, the University of Adelaide—a member of Australia’s prestigious Group of Eight research-intensive universities—stands tall among the world’s leading institutions of learning and innovation.

The clearest indication of this is our consistently high rating by the most respected international assessment bodies: QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education and Shanghai Jiao Tong’s Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU). All consider us one of the top 1% of Universities worldwide, and the top university in our state.

We’re equally proud of the fact that the vast majority of our research is rated ‘above or well above world standard’ by the Australian Research Council’s Excellence in Research Australia program.

We count among our distinguished alumni: five Nobel Laureates; over 100 Rhodes Scholars, including Australia’s first Indigenous recipient; and Australia’s first female prime minister and Supreme Court judge. Many of our staff and teachers are internationally recognised leaders in their fields. And we attract a diverse student body of over 27,000 from more than 90 countries.

At the University of Adelaide, we’ve made a habit of breaking new ground. We were our state’s first university. The first in Australia to admit women to all our degree courses on an equal basis to men. The first to offer degrees in science and business. And the first to establish a conservatorium of music.

In recent times, that spirit of innovation has only grown stronger. For example: