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Former names | List
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Motto | Freedom Through Knowledge | ||||||||
Type | Public research university | ||||||||
Established |
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Accreditation | TEQSA | ||||||||
Academic affiliations | |||||||||
Budget | A$439.55 million (2022)[1] | ||||||||
Chancellor | Denise Goldsworthy[2] | ||||||||
Vice-Chancellor | Steve Chapman[3] | ||||||||
Academic staff | 822 (FTE, 2023)[4] | ||||||||
Administrative staff | 1,187 (FTE, 2023)[4] | ||||||||
Total staff | 2,009 (FTE, 2023)[4] | ||||||||
Students | 30,135 (2023)[4] | ||||||||
Undergraduates | 18,048 (2023)[4] | ||||||||
Postgraduates | 9,573 (2023)[4] | ||||||||
654 (2023)[4] | |||||||||
Other students | 1,860 (2023)[4] | ||||||||
Location | , , 31°45′00″S 115°46′15″E / 31.75009°S 115.77073°E | ||||||||
Campus | Urban and regional, 120.7 hectares (298.3 acres) | ||||||||
Named after | Edith Dircksey Cowan | ||||||||
Colours | Lavender, orange, navy and white[6]
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Nickname | Various | ||||||||
Sporting affiliations | |||||||||
Mascot | Ernie the Emu[7] | ||||||||
Website | www | ||||||||
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Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a public research university in Western Australia.[8] It is named in honour of the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Australian university named after a woman.[9] It is the second-largest university in the state with over 30,000 students in 2023.[4] Gaining university status in 1991, it was formed from an amalgamation of tertiary colleges with a history dating back to 1902 when the Claremont Teachers College was established,[10] making it the modern descendant of the first tertiary institution in Western Australia.[11]
It offers study programs in healthcare, biomedicine, computer science, education, engineering, psychology, sports science, law, aeronautics and the performing arts.[12] It also offers a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) research program and various majors of study in commerce, the arts and sciences.[13] The university has a partnership with the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, with which it offers dual-enrolled programs with integrated overseas study, and the University of Tasmania for naval engineering.[14][15] ECU also has a notable cybersecurity research program being one of two universities operating federal Academic Centres of Cyber Security Excellence (ACCSE)[16] and the only Australian member university in the InterNational Cyber Security Center of Excellence (INCS-CoE).[17]
It has two metropolitan campuses in Perth (Joondalup and Mount Lawley) and a regional campus in Bunbury.[18] The main Joondalup campus forms the flagship institution of the Joondalup Learning Precinct and features a pine park and pond in the university quadrangle.[19] The Mount Lawley campus, which is home to its Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts among other schools, is re-locating to the Perth central business district in late 2025 as part of a new city campus being built west of Yagan Square.[20][21] The Bunbury campus is located in bushland adjacent to the St John of God Bunbury Hospital which is home to a diverse range of native wildlife including cockatoos, possums, quolls, kangaroos and wallabies.[22][23]
The university has produced some of Australia's most prominent figures in the performing arts, operates a large nursing school,[24] has a long history of teacher education[10] and has a significant presence in cybersecurity research.[16][17] It is also notable for achieving the highest student satisfaction rate nationally among the 37 public universities that participate in the federal government's QILT Student Experience Survey.[25] It has retained the position annually from 2020 to the latest survey in 2022.[26][27] As of the Good Universities Guide 2024, it is also one of two national universities to have maintained a 5-star student satisfaction rating for teaching quality for 17 consecutive years.[28]