Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with a main campus in Darwin and eight satellite campuses in some metropolitan and regional areas. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Territory University, the Menzies School of Health Research, and Centralian College.
CDU is a member of the group of seven Innovative Research Universities in Australia, and offers academic degrees as well as vocational education.
History
Charles Darwin University has evolved over the years through the merging of several higher education institutions.
Darwin Community College
Darwin Community College, founded in 1974 and renamed Darwin Institute of Technology in 1984, was a combined College of Advanced Education and a TAFE College. It was situated on what is now the Casuarina Campus, although it used other buildings at various times in Darwin. By the time of the formation of the Northern Territory University, it gave degrees in arts, education, business and applied science.
Menzies School of Health Research
The Menzies School of Health Research was established in 1985 as a body corporate of the Northern Territory Government under the Menzies School of Health Research Act 1985. This act was amended in 2004 to formalise the relationship with Charles Darwin University. Menzies is now a major partner of CDU and constitutes a school within the university on campus at CDU Casuarina offering post-graduate degrees and higher degrees by research.
University College of the Northern Territory
On several occasions the Government of the Northern Territory requested the Australian Commonwealth Government to finance a university in the territory. The response was always that the population was too small. In 1985, it took the unusual step of financing the University College of the Northern Territory itself for a five-year period from 1987 to 1991. The college was governed by a council, chaired by Austin Asche and led by a warden, Professor Jim Thomson, from the University of Queensland. An arrangement was made with the University of Queensland that the college would award degrees from that institution. Staff were recruited in 1986 and housed in the old Darwin Primary School buildings. Just prior to taking the first students in February 1987, the college moved to converted building of the former Darwin Hospital at Myilly Point in Darwin. The former nurses' hostel became a student residence, named International House. The college had two faculties, of arts and science. It awarded, through the University of Queensland link, the first Doctor of Philosophy degrees in the Northern Territory.
Centralian College
Centralian College was founded in 1993 from the merger of Sadadeen Senior Secondary College and the Alice Springs College of TAFE. During its life, the college delivered senior secondary, TAFE and higher education through its main campus in Alice Springs, and to a lesser extent the whole Northern Territory.
After this body merged with NTU in 2003, a newly divested Centralian College became a senior secondary school, for students from Year 10 to Year 12. It shares its campus with the Charles Darwin University campus of Alice Springs. Centralian College uses the university's facilities and students attending Centralian College can participate in VET courses (as early as Year 10) offered by CDU.
Northern Territory University
The Northern Territory University was founded in January 1989 by a merger of the Darwin Institute of Technology and the University College of the Northern Territory. The merger was controversial, but forced by the so-called Dawkins Revolution under federal Minister of Education John Dawkins. The new university started life on 1 January 1989. Degrees of the University of Queensland continued to be awarded to students who initially enrolled in them.
The first vice-chancellor was Professor Malcolm Nairn from Murdoch University in Western Australia. Under his leadership the university prospered and morale was high among both staff and students. However funding declined as student numbers rose. During his term of office the various study centres on the territory, that previously had been run directly by the NT Government, became part of the university. The Palmerston campus, for a few years previously a TAFE College, also became part of the university. The Palmerston campus is situated on University Avenue, as this was the proposed site for a new university in a submission to the federal government in 1981.