University of South Australia from 1991, state's youngest and largest; tradition gets an innovative outlook
One of the original 1990s buildings on North Terrace, Adelaide, for the City West campus of the University of South Australia.
The University of South Australia – ranked in the world's top 50 under 50 years old – was born in 1991 with a foundation of more than 150 years of teaching, learning and research excellence.
This tradition was inherited from the South Australian School of Art (started in 1856) and the South Australian Institute of Technology (from 1889, as the South Australian School of Mines and Industries) that were absorbed into South Australian College of Advanced that became UniSA.
The University of South Australia became the state’s largest in the 21st Century with around 32,000 students. Being founding member of the Australian technology network of universities was part of its innovative focus responding to local, national and global needs.
The University of South Australia settled into two campuses (City East, City West) on North Terrace, Adelaide city. Its two wider metropolitan campuses were at Mawson Lakes (formerly The Levels) and Magill, with regional campuses at Whyalla and Mount Gambier. It also ran offshore degrees with private institutions in Hong Kong Baptist University and other higher education institutions throughout Asia.
UniSA City East campus, incorporating the School of Mines and Industries/Institute of Technology’s Brookman Hall, had several building upgrades and expansions, including The Basil Hetzel Building (2005) with biomechanical, pharmaceutical and microbiological laboratories.
City West, between North Terrace and Hindley Street, had buildings constructed in the 1990s for the new campus. Part of the $167 million Blueprint 2005, the $35 million Hawke Building, named after prime minister Bob Hawke, opened in 2007, included the state’s second largest gallery, the Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, the Kerry Packer Civic Gallery (for exhibitions on culture, history and social debate), the Allan Scott Auditorium, the Hawke Prime Ministerial Library, and Australia's only architecture museum.
Blueprint 2005 also included six new major buildings, extensions and upgrades across UniSA's six campuses and featured the Dorrit Black and Kaurna buildings at City West, the South Australian School of Art and the Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design. Other City West additions were the Jeffrey Smart Building learning centre (2014), Pridham Hall, with a sports complex, pool and hall for graduations, exams, corporate and cultural events (2018), the UniSA Cancer Research Institute (2018), part of the biomedical and health precinct on North Terrace, incorporating the university's Museum of Discovery (MOD).
UniSA Magill campus on St Bernard's Road focused on education, humanities and social science, including psychology, social work, communication and media, public relations, journalism, and the study of creative industries.
Mawson Lakes (formerly The Levels) housed computing and information technology, engineering, science, civil aviation, applied science, sports science, e-commerce and environmental studies. The campus also hosted many research institutes and centres, including the Future Industries Institute researching engineering and physical sciences. The campus also had industry collaborations in the space and defence industries.
Whyalla campus offered nursing, social work, early childhood and primary teaching, engineering and community wellbeing as well as a foundation studies, preparing students for tertiary education.
Based in the Limestone Coast of southeast South Australia, UniSA's Mount Gambier Campus from 2005 provided for country-based students and researchers. It offered students undergraduate programmes in nursing, social work, primary and early childhood education. In 2016, the Mount Gambier Learning Centre was opened.
