Flinders University

By the late 1950s, the University of Adelaide's North Terrace campus was approaching capacity. In 1960, Premier Thomas Playford announced that 150 hectares (370 acres) of state government-owned land in Burbank (now Bedford Park) would be allocated to the University of Adelaide for the establishment of a second campus.[5]

Planning began in 1961. The principal-designate of the new campus, economist and professor Peter Karmel, was adamant that the new campus should operate independently from the North Terrace campus. He hoped that the Bedford Park campus would be free to innovate and not be bound by tradition.[5]

Capital works began in 1962 with a grant of £3.8 million from the Australian Universities Commission. Architect Geoff Harrison, in conjunction with architectural firm Hassell, McConnell and Partners, designed a new university that, with future expansions, could eventually accommodate up to 6000 students.[5]

In 1965, the Australian Labor Party won the state election and Frank Walsh became premier. The ALP wished to break up the University of Adelaide's hegemony over tertiary education in the state, and announced that they intended the Bedford Park campus to be an independent institution.[5]

On 17 March 1966, a bill was passed by state parliament officially creating the Flinders University of South Australia.[6] Although the Labor Party had favoured the name "University of South Australia", academic staff wished that the university be named after a "distinguished but uncontroversial" person. They settled upon British navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in 1802. Its original coat of arms, designed by a professor in the Fine Arts faculty, included a reproduction of Flinders' ship Investigator and his journal A Voyage to Terra Australis, open to the page in which Flinders described the coast adjacent the campus site.[5]

Flinders University was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on 25 March 1966.[6] Peter Karmel was the first Vice-Chancellor and Sir Mark Mitchell the first Chancellor. The university commenced teaching on 7 March 1966 with a student enrolment of 400.

A significant early initiative was the decision to build the Flinders Medical Centre on land adjacent to the campus and to base the university's Medical School within this new public hospital – the first such integration in Australia. Flinders accepted undergraduate medical students in 1974, with the FMC opening the following year.[6]

View of Flinders University main campus, with central plaza and lakeside area visible.

In 1990, the biggest building project on campus since the mid-1970s saw work commence on three new buildings – Law and Commerce; Engineering; and Information Science and Technology. Approval for the establishment of a School of Engineering was given in 1991 and degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering,[7] and Biomedical Engineering[8] were established shortly afterwards.

In 1991, as part of a restructuring of higher education in South Australia, Flinders merged with the adjacent Sturt Campus of the former South Australian College of Advanced Education.[9]

In 1992 a four-faculty structure was adopted.

In 1998, the Centre for Remote Health, a rural teaching hospital based in Alice Springs, was established jointly with the Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University). This was expanded further in 2011 with the establishment of the Northern Territory Medical Program.[10]

Since 2000 the university has established new disciplines in areas including Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and more disciplines of Engineering.[11][12]

In 2011, the bacteria genus Flindersiella was named after the university after the strain was found on a tree on campus grounds.[13]

In 2015, the university opened a new campus at Tonsley,[14] the former site of the Mitsubishi Motors Australia plant in Southern Adelaide. This campus houses the university's School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics,[15] along with the Medical Device Research Institute,[16] the Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology (now known as the Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology)[17] and Flinders technology start-up company Re-Timer.[18]

In 2016, the university celebrated its 50th anniversary with a calendar of public events,[19] and a publication[20] summarising the highlights of the university's history, research, and alumni achievements over the last 50 years.[21] 2016 also saw the opening of the award-winning student hub and plaza, transforming the central campus.[22]

The university's strategic plan Making a Difference - The 2025 Agenda released in 2016 set an ambitious vision for the coming decade for Flinders to reach the top ten of Australian Universities, and the top one per cent in the world.[23]

On 1 July 2017, the university restructured from a two-tier academic system of four faculties and 14 schools, to a single-tier structure consisting of six colleges.[24]

In 2019 the university announced an additional $100 million investment in research and a further $100 million in education over a five-year period to support it to meet its strategic goals.[25]

The university also in 2019 announced plans for a substantial development on a tract on land on the northern portion of the Bedford Park Campus adjacent to the Flinders hospitals precinct. Known as Flinders Village the decade-long development will deliver research facilities, student accommodation, commercial premises and amenities.[26] The catalyst for the initiative was the extension of the Clovelly Park rail line to the Flinders precinct. The $141m rail line and Flinders Station project began operation in December 2020.[27][28] Stage one of the Flinders Village development is the construction of a Health and Medical Research Building. Construction began in December 2021 and the building, which will be home to Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, is scheduled for completion in 2024.[29]

In 2021 the University announced it would be expanding its Central Business District presence, establishing a vertical campus as the anchor tenant in Festival Tower, a major development scheduled for completion in 2024 adjacent to Parliament House and the Adelaide Railway Station on North Terrace.[30]

In 2022, the newly elected state Labor government led by Peter Malinauskas proposed setting up a commission to investigate the possibility of a merger of South Australia's three public universities UniSA, University of Adelaide and Flinders University.[31] The University of Adelaide and University of South Australia have indicated their intention to merge. Flinders University chose to remain an independent entity. [32]

• College of Business, Government and Law[37]
• College of Education, Psychology and Social Work[38]
• College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences[39]
• College of Medicine and Public Health[40]
• College of Nursing and Health Sciences[41]
• College of Science and Engineering[42]

Sir Eric Neal, Chancellor of Flinders University (2002–2010)

Prof. Colin Stirling, Vice Chancellor (2015–present)

Flinders University has been served by seven Chancellors and eight Vice Chancellors since its establishment in 1966. They are:[43]

• Australian Science and Mathematics School
• Flinders Medical Centre
• The Adelaide Theological Centre Brooklyn Park (comprising the Catholic Theological College and the Uniting College for Leadership and Theology replacing the Adelaide College of Divinity)[44]
• Helpmann Academy

Flinders University is amongst the world's top 300 institutions at 266 according to the 2022 Times Higher Education rankings.[54]

Flinders has two options regarding on-campus accommodation:

• University Hall (catered)
• Deirdre Jordan Village (self-catered).

For off-campus accommodation, Flinders Housing run a free, up-to-date accommodation service which lists private accommodation available on the rental market.

Empire Times was published by the Students' Association of Flinders University (SAFU) from 1969 to 2006. The founder and first editor of the newspaper was Martin Fabinyi, and the newspaper was originally printed in the back of his house by fellow student Rod Boswell. Empire Times had a history of controversial humour and anti-establishment discussion. Notable former editors and contributors included Martin Armiger and Greig (HG Nelson) Pickhaver, Steph Key and Kate Ellis. Empire Times ceased publication in 2006 as a result of voluntary student unionism, but resumed in 2013.[55]

Flinders University has many sports teams that compete in social and competitive competitions.

Flinders University has 22 affiliated sporting clubs including Aikido, Athletics, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Fencing, Football, Hockey, Judo, Kendo, Korfball, Lacrosse, Men's Soccer, Muay Thai, Netball, Squash & Racquetball, Table Tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, Underwater, Volleyball and Women's Soccer.[56]

Additionally, Flinders University students have the capacity to go away to annual university games events and compete in a range of sports while representing the university.

• Mario Andreacchio – film director and producer
• Benedict Andrews – theatre director
• Donald Brook – Emeritus Professor of Visual Arts
• Matt Crook - actor[57]
• Alex Frayne – film director
• Noni Hazlehurst – actress
• Scott Hicks – film director
• Victoria Hill – actress, writer and producer
• Aimee Horne – actress and singer
• Craig Lahiff – film director
• Nina Landis – actress
• Caleb Lewis – playwright
• Sam Mac – radio and television personality
• Anthony Maras – film director, writer and producer
• Louisa Mignone - actress[58]
• Doc Neeson – singer, songwriter and front man of The Angels
• Greig Pickhaver (also known as H.G. Nelson) – actor, comedian and writer
• Dario Russo - film director and writer[59]
• Xavier Samuel – actor
• John Schumann – Michael Atkinson, Verity Truman, Chris Timms (founding members of Redgum)
• Wendy Strehlow – actress
• Eddie White – animation writer and director

• Jack Barbalet – professor of sociology
• Carl Bridge – professor of history at King's College, London
• Marion Maddox – author and professor of history at Macquarie University
• Haydon Manning – political scientist
• Andrekos Varnava - writer and professor of history
• Wesley Wildman – professor of theology at Boston University
• Graham Hill – associate professor of missiology and World Christianity at the University of Divinity

• Nazira Abdula, pediatrician and Mozambican Minister of Health
• Richard "Harry" Harris - anaesthetist and 2019 Australian of the Year
• Sally Goold - First Indigenous nurse in New South Wales and 2006 Senior Nurse of the Year

• John Bannon – former South Australian Premier
• Zoe Bettison – South Australian state politician and Minister
• Susan Close – South Australian state politician, Minister and Deputy Premier
• David Cox – Member of the Australian House of Representatives
• Kate Ellis – Member of the Australian House of Representatives and Minister
• Bronwyn Halfpenny – Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
• Ian Hunter – South Australian state politician and Minister
• Tom Kenyon – South Australian state politician and Minister
• Stephanie Key – South Australian state politician and Minister
• Jenny Leong – Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
• Brendan Nelson – former Australian Leader of the Opposition
• Chris Picton – South Australian state politician and Minister
• Mike Rann – former Premier, appointed as a Flinders University professor
• Amanda Rishworth – Member of the Australian House of Representatives
• Don Russell – former Australian Ambassador to the United States
• Robert Simms – Australian Senator
• Andrew Southcott – Member of the Australian House of Representatives
• Gayle Tierney – Member of the Victorian Legislative Council
• Sialeʻataonga Tuʻivakanō – Prime Minister of Tonga[60]
• Lynne Walker – Northern Territory Deputy Leader of the Opposition
• Pratikno – Minister of State Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia
• Nicolle Flint – Member of the Australian House of Representatives

• Rod Boswell – professor, Plasma Research Laboratory, ANU
• Philip Bourne – professor of pharmacology at UCSD
• Rodney Brooks – professor of robotics at MIT
• Sabine Dittmann – marine biologist
• Mohammad Kaykobad – Computer Scientist, Professor of CSE, BUET
• Mamoru Mohri – retired astronaut, scientist and engineer
• Colin Raston - professor of green chemistry, SA Scientist of the Year inventor of the Vortex Fluidic Device
• Terence Tao – Fields Medalist, professor of mathematics at UCLA
• Tony Thomas – professor of physics at the University of Adelaide

• Matthew Liptak – Adelaide Crows footballer
• Agnes Milowka – technical diver and author
• Nigel Smart – Adelaide Crows footballer

• Mem Fox - children's author
• Hannah Kent - author, winner of the Stella Prize
• Sean Williams - multi awarded author of novels and short stories for adults, young people and children [61]
• Peter Martin – economics journalist and commentator (Distinguished Alumnus 2016)
• Sudesh Mishra – poet
• Christopher Pearson – journalist, founder of the Adelaide Review and speechwriter for Prime Minister John Howard
• Mark Peel – Australian historian
• Petar Pjesivac – Serbian poet and essayist

Flinders has produced one Australian of the Year[62] in Richard Harris, one Fields Medalist[63] in Terry Tao, five Rhodes scholars.[64] and 26 Fulbright scholars.