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Twenty-five years of university education in the NT Print E-mail
Monday, 03 March 2014 15:04

2014 marks 25 years of university education in the Territory, and it is also 40 years since the creation of Darwin Community College and 35 years since the first students were admitted to the Community College of Central Australia.

The idea of setting up a university here was first floated in the 1950s and driven by a desire to reduce the interstate brain drain and to provide a base for research specifically related to the Territory's unique desert, tropical and social environments. However, it was not until 1989 that the Northern Territory University, created by a merger of the University of Queensland's University College of the Northern Territory with the Darwin Institute of Technology, opened its doors.

In 2003, the University underwent a further transformation to become Charles Darwin University, the result of a merger of NTU, Centralian College in Alice Springs and the NT Rural College in Katherine, and a partnership with the Menzies School of Health Research.

Today, CDU is ranked in the top 100 of universities around the world which are less than 50 years old, and has over 23,000 students enrolled, providing training and education not only to Territorians but also, thanks to distance learning, to interstate and international students.

Celebrations include a Gala Dinner on 22 March at the Convention Centre. For further information about the dinner and other events taking place throughout the year, contact Maryanne McKaige on 8946 6585 ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or go to cdu.edu.au/25th-anniversary.