The University of Notre Dame Australia is a private Roman Catholic university in Australia with campuses in Perth (Fremantle) and Broome in Western Australia and Sydney in New South Wales. Its campuses are notable for its restored late Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian-style architecture, most of which is ubiquitous in Fremantle's West End heritage area as a university town. The university was established by an act of the Parliament of Western Australia in 1989.

The university is known for its high student-satisfaction rate, which according to the federal Student Experience Survey 2019 was the second highest in the country and the highest in Western Australia. The university ranks lower on research-based rankings of Australian universities. The university is also notable for having very high practical placement hours in its nursing and education programs and being one of two Western Australian universities providing courses in physiotherapy and postgraduate medicine. It also has programs in other subjects including in commerce and law, which can be combined with biomedical science, as well as varying majors of study in the fields of arts and sciences.

The university crest is an open Bible with the opening verse from the Book of John inscribed in Latin. The verse was chosen as the university motto symbolising everything that exists beginning as an idea. The waves below the open Bible and the Commonwealth Star represent the port city of Fremantle, where the university was founded, and Australia as a nation surrounded by water. The symbols are affixed to a Oxford blue badge over a Cambridge blue Greek cross. While the UNDA shares a similar emblem with the Holy Cross University of Notre Dame in Indiana, which played a significant role in developing the university and retains a seat on its board, they are otherwise independent institutions.

In the 2023 Good Universities Guide, Notre Dame University rated among the top four Australian universities for teaching quality, skills development and learner engagement. It is also one of two national universities to have maintained a 5-star rating in teaching quality for 16 years consecutively. The university is also affiliated with the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, International Council of Universities of Saint Thomas Aquinas, International Federation of Catholic Universities and St John of God Health Care.

History

Early discussions

Following the end of World War II in 1945, a Congregation of the Holy Cross priest serving as a U.S. Navy chaplain at Naval Base Sydney was travelling between parishes to provide lectures and sermons. Cardinal Norman Thomas Gilroy, then the Archbishop of Sydney, eventually befriended the Holy Cross chaplain Father Patrick Duffy and they discussed the idea of the University of Notre Dame in the United States and the Congregation of Holy Cross being involved in the establishment of the first private Catholic university in Australia. Father Patrick Duffy in the same year wrote a letter to the Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Father Albert Cousineau, outlining its feasibility and reasons supporting it.

At the time, there were roughly 1.5 million Catholics living in Australia and an established network of Catholic primary and secondary schools. Cardinal Gilroy believed that there was a strong appetite for a Catholic university and that it would enable the education of an "elite Catholic laity that had been the glory of the church in the United States". Father Duffy included that 13 out of the 19 federal cabinet members were Catholic and the influence of Irish Australians, which around the time made up a quarter of the population, in the governing structure of the country, resembling it with the Irish history of the American university.

After months of internal discussions, Father Cousineau and the American Holy Cross' Assistant Provincial Father Chris O'Toole visited Sydney in 1946 to discuss the viability of the institution in a precursory report, outlining its opportunities and disadvantages. While the report highlighted Australia's existing Catholic education system and potential to increase opportunities for the Catholic faith and its members, the report had also found obstacles. These included the lack of universal support or enthusiasm between notable bishops, distance between major cities, perceived competition from existing institutions and the substantial government lobbying required for support or funding. There was also the limitations of technology and issue of distance between the American institutions and Sydney, a future cause for stagnation of progress in the university's establishment.

They concluded that while the potential for an Australian institution undertaken by the Congregation existed, they should start smaller from a single faculty and that the Cardinal of Sydney must support it themselves by providing land and funding. This was partly due to existing commitments in the development of educational institutions elsewhere by the Holy Cross and University of Notre Dame occupying finite resources. The Holy Cross had sent additional personnel to Sydney in the following years to evaluate the future university's plans. This included the proposed name University of St. Mary, faculties, locations and the need for a charter at a state or federal level.

The project was pursued for a number of years and property was purchased in Sydney on behalf of the Holy Cross in 1948. Ultimately, political opposition from the secular press and the further stretching of resources due to the Korean War led to the required charter to establish the university not being acquired at the time. Despite positive reception from Pope Pius XXI and the dominance of Catholics in the governing Labor Party's hierarchy, wider Australian society was more skeptical of the plans. The endeavour was abandoned some time in 1953.

Re-emergence and establishment

In the mid-1980s, concerns were raised by the Catholic Education Commission of Western Australia and the Archdiocese of Perth and that present state universities were not able to sufficiently train the projected levels of lay teachers required to work in Catholic primary and secondary schools in Western Australia. This was partly due to the lack of public Catholic teaching colleges in the state found in the rest of the mainland. The idea of a private Catholic university again surfaced, this time on the opposite side of the Australian continent.

Dr Peter Tannock, who headed the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia, discussed these concerns with William Foley, Archbishop of Perth. They enlisted the help of Denis Horgan, a local Catholic businessman and founder of Leeuwin Estate, who they hoped would provide financial assistance in establishing the university. Horgan was supportive of the idea, as long as the institution would provide more than teacher education.

A small planning committee with Tannock, Horgan, Foley and Dr Michael Quinlan, a Catholic physician, was established and developed the plan for a private Catholic university with a number of sites in Western Australia that would provide medical and nursing education among other fields. Additionally, a feasibility study was conducted by Professor Geoffrey Kiel from the University of Queensland and discussions with various Catholic institutions in North America and Europe.

Father Ted Hesburgh and Father Ned Joyce, who had recently completed extensive tenures as the President and Vice President of University of Notre Dame in Indiana, visited Fremantle and met with the planning committee in February 1988. They discussed the potential for involvement by the American university in the establishment of the planned institution. In the following months, members of the planning committee met with the newly-appointed President Edward Malloy and other leaders of the NDUS in South Bend, Indiana. An agreement was reached for the NDUS to commit in becoming involved in the development and governing body of the university, provide on-going guidance and staff and student exchanges.

Increasing the confidence of the State Government of Western Australia in the feasibility of the institution, the proposal received support from both the WA Labor Premier Peter Dowding and Liberal Opposition Leader Barry MacKinnon, paving the way for obtaining a royal charter for establishment. Prior to state legislation, the decision to name the planned university "The University of Notre Dame Australia" was made, after its founding institution the University of Notre Dame in the United States. It would occupy West End heritage buildings in Fremantle in need of restoration, which would be renovated and converted for use, with the eventual plan to form a university town similar to those found in Europe and North America.

The university was founded through the University of Notre Dame Australia Act 1989 in the Parliament of Western Australia. The Catholic Education Commission and Sisters of St John of God provided initial loans and the donation of property, mainly old unutilised buildings in Fremantle in need of repair. The act was given royal assent on 9 January 1990 and the university was inaugurated at St Patrick's Basilica on 2 July 1991 where it was issued a Canonical Statute. The basilica now serves as the graduation mass venue for graduates of the Fremantle campus, with St Mary's Cathedral for Sydney students.

Prior to the decision to select Fremantle, the State Government had offered the university an extensive land grant in the Alkimos region north in Greater Perth. Under the proposal, its campus would've been built on public land and would be treated in effect as any other university in the state. The State Government believed that the campus could potentially increase the land value and population of the then sparse region, creating potential income and increasing investment from the private sector.

Although this proposal was discussed extensively between the university and the State Government, it was strongly opposed by the Liberal-National opposition. Following the election of Richard Court as Premier of Western Australia in 1993, the proposal was formally withdrawn. As a result, Notre Dame remains the only university established in Western Australia to not receive a land grant by the State.

Growth and development

The first college, the College of Education, had 35 postgraduate students in its first year and the University of Notre Dame (US) sent 25 study abroad students to spend a semester at the Fremantle campus. The program was repeated biannually. Classes for the postgraduate program commenced on February 1992 and the first graduations were held at Fremantle Town Hall on December 1992.

Undergraduate programs began in 1994, when the university first enrolled school leavers, with approximately 350 students. Additional colleges were founded soon after opening in study areas of healthcare, education, law, philosophy, theology, commerce and the arts and sciences. A target was set by the university to reach 2000 students by 2000 in Fremantle. During this time until 2021, the university was not a Commonwealth Supported Place and tuition fees was not subsidised by the federal government. It did however receive other forms of funding by the federal and state governments and was the first private university in Australia to receive government funding.

The university was also itself responsible for funding to convert and upgrade its buildings, restoration works contributing later in becoming ubiquitous with the West End heritage area of Fremantle. Students and university institutions began forming a symbiotic relationship with the city, which transitioned unusable old buildings and surrounding areas into a thriving interdependent economy. In 2002, a Memorandum of Understanding "town and gown concordat" was signed between the university and the City of Fremantle to promote closer ties between them. Growth of the university has had a significant impact on the city as a tourist attraction. This was contributed by the students it brings to the local Fremantle economy and the restoration of historical sites.

Further expansion included St Teresa's Library, named after St Teresa's College in Minnesota (United States), from where 170,000 works were purchased for the university library. The NDUS Librarian had informed UNDA of the closure in 1989 and US$1 million was raised from various sources to acquire its collection. The library, which as of March 2024 is closed for renovations, forms the largest of six libraries across its campuses.

The Broome campus, originally known as the Kimberley Centre, was opened in 1994 in service of Catholic and Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley region. It received funding and was established by Sisters of St John of God on the site of a former Catholic boarding school for girls. The buildings are located near the epicentre of the town, neighbouring St Mary's College, and was restored and renovated for use. The campus has its own accommodation for students and grew to offer vocational and university courses in nursing, teaching and commerce.

Starting in 1998, the federal government began providing Commonwealth funding and student loans to the university. This relationship grew through the institution's importance in teacher and healthcare education in the Kimberley, eventually leading to being granted Table A status in 2021. This meant that undergraduate courses provided by the university were now heavily subsidised by the government, effectively treating it as any other public university in the country.

In 2004, Notre Dame became the second Western Australian university to receive accreditation from the Australian Medical Council. This was achieved after an agreement for reached with the University of Queensland Medical School for the purchase of its curriculum. It also received support from Curtin University to develop its biomedical science courses. It opened its first medical school in Fremantle in 2005 with an initial 80 postgraduate students, followed by Sydney in 2008 and has received funding to open another in Broome in 2025. In 2007, it entered into a joint partnership with the University of Western Australia to collaborate on the Rural Clinical School of Western Australia.

Expansion to New South Wales

Following an invitation by the Archdiocese of Sydney, a new campus was opened in 2006 by then Prime Minister John Howard on the site of St Benedict's Church on Broadway in Sydney. This was followed by another Sydney campus in 2008 on the sites of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Sacred Heart Hospice in Darlinghurst. Notre Dame University was chosen partly for its expertise in restoring deteriorating historical landmarks and high-density campus planning. The Darlinghurst campus is adjacent to St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, where the university is affiliated with St Vincent’s & Mater Clinical School.

The establishment of the Sydney campus was funded primarily by the federal government with additional funding from the Archdioceses of Sydney and the Sydney Catholic Education Office. Existing property surrounding the sites such as Pioneer House on Broadway were also purchased and new buildings were built to accommodate the future growth of student population. The Sydney Catholic Education Office also donated property including the Canavan Hall building, which now houses St Benedict’s Library among other facilities. In addition, the Broadway campus has access to a number of facilities in the neighbouring University of Technology Sydney under a mutual agreement.

In 2008, Notre Dame opened its second medical school on its Sydney campuses, making it the only university in Australia to have more than one medical school. The medical school, which now has clinical and training sites across multiple states, had an initial enrolment of 100 students from New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. Pope Benedict XVI visited the newly-opened medical school and St Benedict’s Library, which is named after him. He also visited the Sacred Heart Catholic Church on the Darlinghurst campus, which together with the Sacred Heart Health Service and St Vincent's Hospital forms a key component of the school of medicine.

Campuses and facilities

Notre Dame University has campuses located in the port city of Fremantle in Greater Perth, the resort town of Broome in the Kimberley and in Darlinghurst and on Broadway in inner city Sydney. It is the only university in Australia to have major campuses on both the east and west coasts and students can apply to switch between campuses while studying the same course. In addition to the campuses, the university also has eight clinical schools as part of its school of medicine located across Sydney and Melbourne and also in regional New South Wales and Victoria.

Fremantle campus

The Fremantle campus is located in the historic West End of the city, a designated heritage precinct famous for its late Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian-style architecture. The university has rejuvenated much of the West End and has worked to restore the traditional architecture of the precinct, occupying 50 properties since its establishment in 1992 and restoring many buildings. Due to the presence of Notre Dame, Fremantle is seeking to be referred to as a "university town", much like older university towns in Europe and to be the only one of its kind in Australia.

Some notable heritage buildings on campus include:

• Justice Owen Moot Court (1884) used by law students in mock trials, lectures, seminars and also private functions such as weddings. It is the only court house in Australia owned by a university.
• Howard Smith Building (1900) is one of the buildings used by the School of Nursing and Midwifery.
• Customs House (1885) is home to the Staff and Student Gym and Student Counselling Office.
• P&O Building (1903) is another building used by the School of Nursing and Midwifery.
• Frank Cadd Building (1890) is an attachment of the School of Health Sciences building.
• Dalgety Building (1899) used by Information Technology services staff
• Others including a number of Bateman buildings, Kreglinger buildings, Owston's Buildings, Grieve and Piper buildings, His Lordship's Larder, a former Naval Drill Hall and the converted Galvin Medical Library

Sydney campus

The Sydney campus is spread across two sites – one based in Broadway and the other in Darlinghurst adjacent to St Vincent's Hospital. The School of Medicine Sydney has eight clinical schools in Sydney, Melbourne and in rural locations across the east coast.

The Sydney Clinical School is located across St Vincent's & Mater Clinical School at St Vincent's Hospital, Auburn Clinical School at Auburn Hospital and Hawkesbury Clinical School at Hawkesbury Health Service. The Melbourne Clinical School is located at the Werribee Mercy Hospital.

The rural clinical schools are located at the Lithgow Clinical School at Lithgow Hospital, the Ballarat Clinical School at St John of God Hospital Ballarat, the Riverina Regional Training Hub (RRTH) and the Wagga Wagga Clinical School at Calvary Health Care Riverina.

Broome campus

The Broome campus is located adjacent to St Mary's College along Guy Street. It is home to the university's Nulungu Research Institute and has on-campus accommodation. It also hosts the Majarlin Kimberley Centre for Remote Health in Broome.

Organisation and administration

The university has three campuses offering courses in the following schools:

• School of Arts and Sciences (Broome, Fremantle and Sydney)
• School of Business (Fremantle and Sydney)
• School of Education (Broome, Fremantle and Sydney)
• School of Health Sciences (Fremantle)
• School of Law (Fremantle and Sydney)
• School of Medicine (Fremantle and Sydney)
• School of Nursing and Midwifery (Broome and Fremantle); School of Nursing (Sydney)
• School of Philosophy and Theology (Broome, Fremantle and Sydney)
• School of Physiotherapy (Fremantle)

The university is a self-accrediting institution and is subject to regular quality audits and registration processes undertaken by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.

The governance structure of Notre Dame is determined largely by its enabling act of parliament and its statutes. These specify the source, role and functions of its trustees, board of directors and board of governors and the principal officers and academic leaders of the university.

Academics

Admissions

For domestic applications, an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), Special Tertiary Admission Test (STAT) results, vocational education or approved pathway studies is generally required for bachelor's degrees. Applicants may also use their Year 11 and 12 school reports prior to receiving an ATAR to receive an early admissions offer based on their predicted ATAR.

The university requires applicants to submit a portfolio to determine individual qualities about the applicant. Areas assessed include personal qualities, contribution to community and life experiences. These factors can affect the applicant's selection rank by means of additional points granted to their selection rank. Other adjustment factors include equity, elite athlete and artistic performers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, involvement in Australian Defence Force, school performance and the applicant's location. Overall, a total of up to 10 adjustment factor points may be granted.

Until 2021, Notre Dame was not part of the Western Australia Tertiary Institutions Service Centre (TISC) nor the New South Wales Universities Admissions Centre, and students applied directly to the university through its admissions process. In July 2021, Notre Dame partnered with TISC to take applications for undergraduate courses in Western Australia through TISC. International students compose 2.72% of the university's student body.

Teaching structure

Notre Dame University differs from other Australian universities in its course structure by requiring undergraduate students to undertake courses in theology, philosophy and ethics. This is known as the core curriculum in Fremantle, and the LOGOS program in Sydney.

Notre Dame's medicine students study a core course, bioethics, whilst students on the Broome campus study Aboriginal people and spirituality as part of their degree. A similar system is also used by the Australian Catholic University, which requires Catholic thought or philosophy units as part of their core curriculum.

Several professional degrees are available only for graduate entry. These degrees are at a masters or doctoral level according to the Australian Qualification Framework, and include courses in medicine and research.

Rankings

The university has a higher teaching to research staff ratio than most universities in Australia. The university either does not participate in or does not qualify for research-based university rankings including the Times Higher Education rankings, CWTS Leiden rankings and ARWU Shanghai rankings and is therefore unranked in those publications. Notre Dame University does, however, have a position on ARWU Shanghai Ranking's Global Ranking for Academic Subjects for nursing at #151–200 globally. University ranking organisations that rank universities regardless of participation such as Quacquarelli Symonds and U.S. News & World Report have ranked the university as #1511 and #1401+ respectively, though their reliability is subject to scrutiny.

The university is however known for its high student satisfaction rate, which according to the federal Student Experience Survey 2019 was the second highest in Australia and the highest among Western Australian universities. The university is also notable for having significantly higher practical placement hours than legally required in its nursing, physiotherapy and education programs.

In the 2023 Good Universities Guide, Notre Dame University rated among the top four Australian universities for teaching quality, skills development and learner engagement. It is also one of two national universities to have maintained a 5-star rating in teaching quality for 16 years consecutively.

Research

Notre Dame has three institutes for scholarship and research located across its campuses.

• The Institute for Health Research (Fremantle campus)
• Nulungu Research Institute (Broome campus)
• The Institute for Ethics and Society (Sydney campus)

The Institute for Health Research draws on the clinical expertise within Notre Dame's Schools of Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing & Midwifery and Physiotherapy to develop research partnerships and projects that support the healthy ageing of all Australians. Nulungu collaborates with national and international universities, government and Indigenous Australian communities to develop research outcomes of benefit to the country's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It was established by Lyn Henderson-Yates, who herself is an indigenous Australian and is also vice-chancellor of the university's Broome campus. The Institute for Ethics and Society pursues philosophical and interdisciplinary research across five core areas: applied and professional ethics; ethics education; bioethics; religion and global society; and Indigenous research and ethics.

The university is one of the partners in the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, one of the largest cohorts of pregnancy, childhood, adolescence and early adulthood to be carried out anywhere in the world.

Student life

Student unions and associations

The Sydney and Fremantle campuses both have representative student associations, created to represent all the students at each campus. The Sydney campus is home to the Student Association of the University of Notre Dame Australia (SAUNDA), while the Fremantle Campus hosts the Notre Dame Student Association (NDSA). These organisations are currently not recognised in the university statues, making them student associations and not guilds.

The Catholic Mass is celebrated each weekday and on Sunday evening at the Fremantle campus, weekdays on the Sydney campus, and on Wednesdays at the Broome campus.

The student population across Australia at Notre Dame campuses numbers 12,394 as of February 2018, 6,544 of these being in Fremantle, 5,685 in Sydney and 165 in Broome.

Libraries

Notre Dame has six individual libraries across the three campuses: St Teresa's Library, Galvin Medical Library and the Craven Law Library at the Fremantle campus; Benedict XVI Medical Library (Darlinghurst) and St Benedict's Library (Broadway) at the Sydney campus; and the Broome Campus Library at the Broome campus.

St Teresa's Library

St Teresa's Library, located at 34 Mouat Street, Fremantle, is a heritage listed building in the West End and supports the programs of the Schools of Arts & Sciences, Business, Education and Philosophy & Theology. Built on land first owned by John Bateman, the building was originally a warehouse for Bateman Hardware. The building was first adapted to become a university library in 1994 when only limited, low cost adaptive re-use works could be afforded, and was renovated again in 2011 to provide maximum floor area.

Galvin Medical Library

Galvin Medical Library, located at 38–40 Henry Street, Fremantle, is contained within the School of Medicine, a heritage listed building. The library supports the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Physiotherapy and Health Sciences. Constructed from 1900 onward, the building was known as Fowler's Warehouse and served as the principal premises in Western Australia for D. & J. Fowler Ltd., the wholesale grocery company. The library was opened in 2005 after Notre Dame took over the lease of the buildings from the City of Fremantle.

Craven Law Library

Like St Teresa's Library, Craven Law Library is located in the former Bateman family warehouse complex between Mouat and Henry Streets in Fremantle. The library was established in 1997, but renamed the Craven Law Library in 2003 to commemorate the foundation dean of the School of Law, Greg Craven. The library supports the School of Law and contains a print collection in excess of 30,000 volumes, including historic primary materials.

Benedict XVI Medical Library

The Benedict XVI Medical Library, located at 160 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, is housed next to the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in a building originally occupied by a Catholic school run by the Sisters of Charity of Australia. The building was taken over by Notre Dame in 2004–05 and supports the Schools of Medicine and Nursing. It was named in honour of Pope Benedict XVI during a visit he made to the university and library on 18 July 2008.

Notable alumni and faculty

The current and fifth chancellor of the university, serving since 2017, is Chris Ellison, a Western Australia-based former senator. The vice-chancellor and chief executive officer of the university from 2008 until February 2019 was Celia Hammond, a former lawyer who resigned to seek election to federal parliament. The current vice-chancellor Francis Campbell commenced February 2020.

Chancellors

Vice-chancellors

Alumni

This is a list of notable alumni of Notre Dame University.

Faculty

This is a list of notable current or former faculty of Notre Dame University.

Honorary alumni

This is a list of notable individuals awarded honary degrees by Notre Dame University.

See also

• List of universities in Australia
• Rural Clinical School of Western Australia
• Kenvale College of Tourism & Hospitality Management, an institution with an articulation agreement with the University of Notre Dame, Sydney

Footnotes

References

External links

• Official website
• Media related to University of Notre Dame Australia at Wikimedia Commons