Trident University

Trident University International is a virtual, regionally accredited for-profit university where all courses are delivered online. It offers Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degree programs in Business, Health Sciences, Education, and Information Systems. Trident University is a former branch campus of Touro College, later purchased by Summit Partners.

Founding:

Trident University is a former branch campus of Touro College, which was founded in 1970 in New York City. In October 2007, Trident became a stand-alone institution and was purchased by Summit Partners, a private-equity firm in Palo Alto, California, and Boston, Massachusetts. After purchasing the university, Summit Partners reorganized TUI as a for-profit institution and changed the name to Trident University International.

Trident University International:

In July 2009, Kenneth J. Sobaski, formerly of Capella University, was named President and CEO. In January 2011, TUI University announced major changes in its appearance and delivery, including a name change to Trident University International. Interim president Nolan Miura announced on December 12, 2011 the appointment of Lucille Sansing as president and CEO. On November 10, 2013, Andy Vaughn was named President and Chief Executive Officer.

Trident University is regionally accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Their accreditation was threatened in 2011 by allegations that it had "failed to ensure that students transferring in to its undergraduate program had fulfilled their general education requirements and, more importantly, failed to tell the accreditor about the problem."[4] In February 2012, WASC lifted the "show cause" order previously imposed on Trident and placed the school on probation due to Trident's progress in resolving the issues identified. One year later, WASC removed Trident's probation and reaffirmed its accreditation.

Degree programs:

Trident University offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level degrees, primarily focused around four core disciplines utilizing the Robust Learning Model (RLM), which was created by Dr. Yoram Neumann, the Founder and first President and CEO of TUI University. Trident is a military-friendly university

Solvency:

In 2011 the US Department of Education determined Trident was one of 75 US institutions failing its 2009-2010 financial responsibility test (a measure of the institution's financial solvency), and would be required to post a letter of credit in order for students to receive federal financial aid.[9] Trident also failed its 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 financial responsibility tests, scoring negative 1.0 (-1.0) for 2010-2011 on a scale of -1 to 3, lower than the 0.2 it earned the prior term; negative 1.0 (-1.0) for 2011-2012; and negative 1.0 (-1.0) again for 2012-2013. In 2015 the US Department of Education placed Trident on "HCM-Cash Monitoring 1" status because of its financial issues.

University of California at Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California. It is the flagship campus of the University of California system, one of three parts in the state's public higher education plan, which also includes the California State University system and the California Community Colleges System. It is considered by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings as one of six university brands that lead in world reputation rankings in 2015 and is ranked third on the U.S. News' 2015 Best Global Universities rankings conducted in the U.S. and nearly 50 other countries. The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) also ranks the University of California, Berkeley fourth in the world overall, and first among public universities. It is broadly ranked first in science, third in engineering, and fifth in social sciences, with specific rankings of first in chemistry, first in physics, third in computer science, fourth in mathematics, and fourth in economics/business. The university is also well known for producing a high number of entrepreneurs.

Established in 1868 as the result of the merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College in Oakland, UC Berkeley is the oldest institution in the UC system and offers approximately 350 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. The University of California has been charged with providing both "classical" and "practical" education for the state's people. Cal co-manages three United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy. Berkeley faculty, alumni, and researchers have won 72 Nobel Prizes, nine Wolf Prizes, seven Fields Medals, 18 Turing Awards, 45 MacArthur Fellowships, 20 Academy Awards, and 11 Pulitzer Prizes. To date, UC Berkeley scientists have discovered six chemical elements of the periodic table (californium, seaborgium, berkelium, einsteinium, fermium, lawrencium). Along with Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley researchers have discovered 16 chemical elements in total – more than any other university in the world. Berkeley is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and continues to have very high research activity with $730.7 million in research and development expenditures in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014.

Architecture:

What is considered the historic campus today was the result of the 1898 "International Competition for the Phoebe Hearst Architectural Plan for the University of California," funded by William Randolph Hearst's mother and initially held in the Belgian city of Antwerp; eleven finalists were judged again in San Francisco in 1899. The winner was Frenchman Émile Bénard, however he refused to personally supervise the implementation of his plan and the task was subsequently given to architecture professor John Galen Howard. Howard designed over twenty buildings, which set the tone for the campus up until its expansion in the 1950s and 1960s. The structures forming the "classical core" of the campus were built in the Beaux-Arts Classical style, and include Hearst Greek Theatre, Hearst Memorial Mining Building, Doe Memorial Library, California Hall, Wheeler Hall, (Old) Le Conte Hall, Gilman Hall, Haviland Hall, Wellman Hall, Sather Gate, and the 307-foot (94 m) Sather Tower (nicknamed "the Campanile" after its architectural inspiration, St Mark's Campanile in Venice). Buildings he regarded as temporary, nonacademic, or not particularly "serious" were designed in shingle or Collegiate Gothic styles; examples of these are North Gate Hall, Dwinelle Annex, and Stephens Hall. Many of Howard's designs are recognized California Historical Landmarks and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Built in 1873 in a Victorian Second-Empire-style, South Hall is the oldest university building in California. It, and the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Piedmont Avenue east of the main campus, are the only remnants from the original University of California before John Galen Howard's buildings were constructed. Other architects whose work can be found in the campus and surrounding area are Bernard Maybeck (best known for the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco), Maybeck's student Julia Morgan (Hearst Women's Gymnasium), Charles Willard Moore (Haas School of Business) and Joseph Esherick (Wurster Hall).

Academics:

Berkeley is a large, primarily residential research university with a majority of enrollments in undergraduate programs but also offers a comprehensive doctoral graduate program. The university has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission since 1949. The university is one of only two UC campuses operating on a semester calendar, (the other is UC Merced). Berkeley offers 106 Bachelor's degrees, 88 Master's degrees, 97 research-focused doctoral programs, and 31 professionally focused graduate degrees. The university awarded 7,565 Bachelor's, 2,610 Master's or Professional, and 930 Doctoral degrees in 2013-14.

Berkeley's 130-plus academic departments and programs are organized into 14 colleges and schools in addition to UC Berkeley Extension. "Colleges" are both undergraduate and graduate, while "Schools" are generally graduate only, though some offer undergraduate majors, minors, or courses.

Faculty and Research:

Berkeley is a research university with a "very high" level of research activity. In 2013 Berkeley spent $727 million on research and development (R&D). There are 1,582 full-time and 500 part-time faculty members dispersed among more than 130 academic departments and more than 80 interdisciplinary research units. Berkeley's current faculty includes 227 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows, 3 Fields Medal winners, 83 Fulbright Scholars, 139 Guggenheim Fellows, 87 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 132 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 8 Nobel Prize winners, 3 Pulitzer Prize winners, 84 Sloan Fellows, 7 Wolf Prize winners and 1 Pritzker Prize winner. 72 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university as faculty, alumni or researchers, the most of any public university in the United States and sixth most of any university in the world. Faculty at UC Berkeley are more likely to be registered Democrats than Republicans; this is similar to findings at Stanford University.

Library System:

Berkeley's 32 libraries tie together to make the fourth largest academic library in the United States surpassed only by Harvard University Library, Yale University Library and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. However, considering the relative sizes and ages of these University libraries, Berkeley's collections have been growing about as fast as those at Harvard and Yale combined: specifically, 1.8 times faster than Harvard, and 1.9 times faster than Yale. In 2003, the Association of Research Libraries ranked it as the top public and third overall university library in North America based on various statistical measures of quality. As of 2006, Berkeley's library system contains over 11 million volumes and maintains over 70,000 serial titles. The libraries together cover over 12 acres (4.9 ha) of land and form one of the largest library complexes in the world. Doe Library serves as the library system's reference, periodical, and administrative center, while most of the main collections are housed in the subterranean Gardner Main Stacks and Moffitt Undergraduate Library. The Bancroft Library, with holdings of over 400,000 printed volumes, maintains a collection that documents the history of the western part of North America, with an emphasis on California, Mexico and Central America.

Admissions and Enrollment:

The Freshman Fall 2015 undergraduate acceptance rate at Berkeley was 16.9%. For Fall 2014, Berkeley enrolled 27,126 undergraduate and 10,455 graduate students, with women making up 52.1% of undergraduate enrollments and 45.2% graduate and professional students. California residents comprise 79% of Fall 2012 undergraduates and 40% of Fall 2013 graduate and professional students. Of the Fall 2011 cohort, 97% of freshmen enrolled the next year. The four-year graduation rate for the Fall 2007 cohort was 61%, and the six-year rate was 88%. Enrolled freshman for the fall of 2014 had an average fully weighted high school GPA of 4.39 and an average unweighted GPA of 3.85. Fall 2014 admitted freshman applicants had an average ACT Composite score of 32–33, and average combined SAT scores of 2124 for in-state admits and 2171 for out-of-state admits. Berkeley's enrollment of National Merit Scholars was third in the nation until 2002, when participation in the National Merit program was discontinued. 31% of admitted students receive federal Pell grants.

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a collegiate public research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, Cambridge is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's fourth-oldest surviving university. It grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople. The two ancient universities share many common features and are often jointly referred to as "Oxbridge". Cambridge is formed from a variety of institutions which include 31 constituent colleges and over 100 academic departments organised into six schools. The university occupies buildings throughout the city, many of which are of historical importance. The colleges are self-governing institutions founded as integral parts of the university. In the year ended 31 July 2014, the university had a total income of £1.51 billion, of which £371 million was from research grants and contracts. The central university and colleges have a combined endowment of around £5.89 billion, the largest of any university outside the United States. Cambridge is a member of many associations and forms part of the "golden triangle" of leading English universities and Cambridge University Health Partners, an academic health science centre. The university is closely linked with the development of the high-tech business cluster known as "Silicon Fen".

Students' learning involves lectures and laboratory sessions organised by departments, and supervisions provided by the colleges. The university operates eight arts, cultural, and scientific museums, including the Fitzwilliam Museum and a botanic garden. Cambridge's libraries hold a total of around 15 million books, 8 million of which are in Cambridge University Library which is a legal deposit library. Cambridge University Press, a department of the university, is the world's oldest publishing house and the second-largest university press in the world. Cambridge is regularly included among the world's best and most reputable universities by most university rankings. Beside academic studies, student life is centred on the colleges and numerous pan-university artistic activities, sports clubs and societies. Cambridge has many notable alumni, including several eminent mathematicians, scientists, economists, writers, philosophers, actors, politicians. Ninety-two Nobel laureates have been affiliated with it as students, faculty, staff or alumni. Throughout its history, the university has featured in literature and artistic works by numerous authors including Geoffrey Chaucer, E. M. Forster and C. P. Snow.

Foundation:

The colleges at the University of Cambridge were originally an incidental feature of the system. No college is as old as the university itself. The colleges were endowed fellowships of scholars. There were also institutions without endowments, called hostels. The hostels were gradually absorbed by the colleges over the centuries, but they have left some indicators of their time, such as the name of Garret Hostel Lane. Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse, Cambridge's first college, in 1284. Many colleges were founded during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but colleges continued to be established throughout the centuries to modern times, although there was a gap of 204 years between the founding of Sidney Sussex in 1596 and Downing in 1800. The most recently established college is Robinson, built in the late 1970s. However, Homerton College only achieved full university college status in March 2010, making it the newest full college.

In medieval times, many colleges were founded so that their members would pray for the souls of the founders, and were often associated with chapels or abbeys. A change in the colleges' focus occurred in 1536 with the Dissolution of the Monasteries. King Henry VIII ordered the university to disband its Faculty of Canon Law and to stop teaching "scholastic philosophy". In response, colleges changed their curricula away from canon law, and towards the classics, the Bible, and mathematics. Nearly a century later, the university was at the centre of a Protestant schism. Many nobles, intellectuals and even commoners saw the ways of the Church of England as being too similar to the Catholic Church and that it was used by the crown to usurp the rightful powers of the counties. East Anglia was the centre of what became the Puritan movement and at Cambridge, it was particularly strong at Emmanuel, St Catharine's Hall, Sidney Sussex and Christ's College. They produced many "non-conformist" graduates who greatly influenced, by social position or pulpit, the approximately 20,000 Puritans who left for New England and especially the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Great Migration decade of the 1630s. Oliver Cromwell, Parliamentary commander during the English Civil War and head of the English Commonwealth (1649–1660), attended Sidney Sussex.

Academic Profile:

Undergraduate applications to Cambridge must be made through UCAS in time for the early deadline, currently mid-October in the year before starting. Until the 1980s candidates for all subjects were required to sit special entrance examinations, since replaced by additional tests for some subjects, such as the Thinking Skills Assessment and the Cambridge Law Test. The University is considering reintroducing an admissions exam for all subjects with effect from 2016. Most applicants who are called for interview will have been predicted at least three A-grade A-level qualifications relevant to their chosen undergraduate course, or the equivalent in other qualifications, such as getting at least 7,7,6 for higher-level subjects at IB. The A* A-level grade (introduced in 2010) now plays a part in the acceptance of applications, with the university's standard offer for most courses being set at A*AA, with A*A*A for sciences courses. Due to a very high proportion of applicants receiving the highest school grades, the interview process is crucial for distinguishing between the most able candidates. 

The interview is performed by College Fellows, who evaluate candidates on unexamined factors such as potential for original thinking and creativity. For exceptional candidates, a Matriculation Offer is sometimes offered, requiring only two A-levels at grade E or above. In 2006, 5,228 students who were rejected went on to get 3 A levels or more at grade A, representing about 63% of all applicants rejected. The acceptance rate for students in the 2012–2013 cycle was 21.9%. Strong applicants who are not successful at their chosen college may be placed in the Winter Pool, where they can be offered places by other colleges. This is in order to maintain consistency throughout the colleges, some of which receive more applicants than others. Graduate admission is first decided by the faculty or department relating to the applicant's subject. This effectively guarantees admission to a college—though not necessarily the applicant's preferred choice.

Libraries and Museums:

The university has 114 libraries. The Cambridge University Library is the central research library, which holds over 8 million volumes. It is a legal deposit library, therefore it is entitled to request a free copy of every book published in the UK and Ireland. In addition to the University Library and its dependents, almost every faculty or department has a specialised library; for example, the History Faculty's Seeley Historical Library possesses more than 100,000 books. Furthermore, every college has a library as well, partially for the purposes of undergraduate teaching, and the older colleges often possess many early books and manuscripts in a separate library. For example, Trinity College's Wren Library has more than 200,000 books printed before 1800, while Corpus Christi College's Parker Library possesses one of the greatest collections of medieval manuscripts in the world, with over 600 manuscripts.

Cambridge University operates eight arts, cultural, and scientific museums, and a botanic garden. The Fitzwilliam Museum, is the art and antiquities museum, the Kettle's Yard is a contemporary art gallery, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology houses the University's collections of local antiquities, together with archaeological and ethnographic artefacts from around the world, the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology houses a wide range of zoological specimens from around the world and is known for its iconic finback whale skeleton that hangs outside. This Museum also has specimens collected by Charles Darwin. Other museums include, the Museum of Classical Archaeology, the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences which is the geology museum of the University, the Polar Museum, part of the Scott Polar Research Institute which is dedicated to Captain Scott and his men, and focuses on the exploration of the Polar Regions. The Cambridge University Botanic Garden is the botanic garden of the University, created in 1831.

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois and one of the world's leading and influential institutions of higher learning, with top ten positions in numerous rankings and measures. The university, established in 1890, consists of The College, various graduate programs, interdisciplinary committees organized into four academic research divisions and seven professional schools. Beyond the arts and sciences, Chicago is also well known for its professional schools, which include the Pritzker School of Medicine, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the Law School, the School of Social Service Administration, the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies and the Divinity School. The university currently enrolls approximately 5,000 students in the College and around 15,000 students overall. University of Chicago scholars have played a major role in the development of various academic disciplines, including: the Chicago school of economics, the Chicago school of sociology, the law and economics movement in legal analysis, the Chicago school of literary criticism, the Chicago school of religion, and the behavioralism school of political science. Chicago's physics department helped develop the world's first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction beneath the university's Stagg Field. 

Chicago's research pursuits have been aided by unique affiliations with world-renowned institutions like the nearby Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory, as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university is also home to the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States. With an estimated completion date of 2020, the Barack Obama Presidential Center will be housed at the University of Chicago and include both the Obama presidential library and offices of the Obama Foundation.  Founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and wealthiest man in history John D. Rockefeller, the University of Chicago was incorporated in 1890; William Rainey Harper became the university's first president in 1891, and the first classes were held in 1892. Both Harper and future president Robert Maynard Hutchins advocated for Chicago's curriculum to be based upon theoretical and perennial issues rather than on applied sciences and commercial utility. With Harper's vision in mind, the University of Chicago also became one of the 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities, an international organization of leading research universities, in 1900.

Campus:

The main campus of the University of Chicago consists of 211 acres (85.4 ha) in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn, seven miles (11 km) south of downtown Chicago. The northern and southern portions of campus are separated by the Midway Plaisance, a large, linear park created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed the university as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States. The first buildings of the University of Chicago campus, which make up what is now known as the Main Quadrangles, were part of a "master plan" conceived by two University of Chicago trustees and plotted by Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb. The Main Quadrangles consist of six quadrangles, each surrounded by buildings, bordering one larger quadrangle. The buildings of the Main Quadrangles were designed by Cobb, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, Holabird & Roche, and other architectural firms in a mixture of the Victorian Gothic and Collegiate Gothic styles, patterned on the colleges of the University of Oxford.

After the 1940s, the Gothic style on campus began to give way to modern styles. In 1955, Eero Saarinen was contracted to develop a second master plan, which led to the construction of buildings both north and south of the Midway, including the Laird Bell Law Quadrangle (a complex designed by Saarinen); a series of arts buildings; a building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the university's School of Social Service Administration;, a building which is to become the home of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies by Edward Durrell Stone, and the Regenstein Library, the largest building on campus, a brutalist structure designed by Walter Netsch of the Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Another master plan, designed in 1999 and updated in 2004, produced the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center (2003), the Max Palevsky Residential Commons (2001), South Campus Residence Hall and dining commons (2009), a new children's hospital, and other construction, expansions, and restorations. In 2011, the university completed the glass dome-shaped Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, which provides a grand reading room for the university library and prevents the need for an off-campus book depository. The site of Chicago Pile-1 is a National Historic Landmark and is marked by the Henry Moore sculpture Nuclear Energy. Robie House, a Frank Lloyd Wright building acquired by the university in 1963, is also a National Historic Landmark, as is room 405 of the George Herbert Jones Laboratory, where Glenn T. Seaborg and his team were the first to isolate plutonium. Hitchcock Hall, an undergraduate dormitory, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Academics:

The academic bodies of the University of Chicago consist of the College, four divisions of graduate research and seven professional schools. The university also contains a library system, the University of Chicago Press, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, and the University of Chicago Medical Center, and holds ties with a number of independent academic institutions, including Fermilab, Argonne National Laboratory, and the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The university runs on a quarter system in which the academic year is divided into four terms: Summer (June–August), Autumn (September–December), Winter (January–March), and Spring (April–June). Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every quarter for approximately eleven weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in mid-June.

Research:

In fiscal year 2006, the University of Chicago spent US$305,301,000 on scientific research. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as an institution with "very high research activity" and is a founding member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and the Association of American Universities. The university operates 12 research institutes and 113 research centers on campus. Among these are the Oriental Institute—a museum and research center for Near Eastern studies owned and operated by the university—and a number of National Resource Centers, including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Chicago also operates or is affiliated with a number of research institutions apart from the university proper. The university partially manages Argonne National Laboratory, part of the United States Department of Energy's national laboratory system, and has a joint stake in Fermilab, a nearby particle physics laboratory, as well as a stake in the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico. Faculty and students at the adjacent Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago collaborate with the university, In 2013, the university announced that it was affiliating the formerly independent Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. Although formally unrelated, the National Opinion Research Center is located on Chicago's campus.

The University of Chicago has been the site of some important experiments and academic movements. In economics, the university has played an important role in shaping ideas about the free market and is the namesake of the Chicago school of economics, the school of economic thought supported by Milton Friedman and other economists. The university's sociology department was the first independent sociology department in the United States and gave birth to the Chicago school of sociology. In physics, the university was the site of the Chicago Pile-1 (the first self-sustained man-made nuclear reaction, part of the Manhattan Project), of Robert Millikan's oil-drop experiment that calculated the charge of the electron, and of the development of radiocarbon dating by Willard F. Libby in 1947. The chemical experiment that tested how life originated on early Earth, the Miller–Urey experiment, was conducted at the university. REM sleep was discovered at the university in 1953 by Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky. The University of Chicago (Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics) has owned the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin since 1897, where the largest operating refracting telescope in the world and other telescopes are located.

Student body & Admissions:

In the fall quarter of 2014, the University of Chicago enrolled 5,792 students in the College, 3,468 students in its four graduate divisions, 5,984 students in its professional schools, and 15,244 students overall. In the 2012 Spring Quarter, international students comprised almost 19% of the overall study body, over 26% of students were domestic ethnic minorities, and about 44% of enrolled students were female. Admissions to the University of Chicago is highly selective. The middle 50% band of SAT scores for the undergraduate class of 2015, excluding the writing section, was 1420–1530, the average MCAT score for entering students in the Pritzker School of Medicine in 2011 was 36, and the median LSAT score for entering students in the Law School in 2011 was 171. In 2015, the College of the University of Chicago had an acceptance rate of 7.8% for the Class of 2019, the lowest in the college's history.

University of New South Wales

The University of New South Wales is an Australian public research university located in the suburb of Kensington in Sydney. The university was established in 1949 by the New South Wales government. The main campus is located on a 38-hectare site in the Sydney suburb of Kensington, seven kilometres from the centre of Sydney. The creative arts faculty, UNSW Art & Design, is located in Paddington, UNSW Canberra is located at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, and sub-campuses are located in the Sydney CBD, the suburbs of Randwick and Coogee, research stations are located throughout the state of New South Wales. UNSW is a founding member of the Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive universities, and of Universitas 21, a leading global network of research universities. It has international exchange and research partnerships with over 200 universities around the world. It was ranked among the top 50 universities in the world, according to the 2015 QS World University Rankings, and among the top 4 in Australia. UNSW graduates hold more chief executive positions of ASX 200 listed companies than those of any other university in Australia.

The idea of founding the University originated from the crisis demands of World War II, during which the nation's attention was drawn to the critical role that science and technology played in transforming an agricultural society into a modern and industrial one. The post-war Labor government of New South Wales recognised the increasing need to have a university specialised in training high-quality engineers and technology-related professionals in numbers beyond that of the capacity and characteristics of the existing University of Sydney. This led to the proposal to establish the Institute of Technology, submitted by the then New South Wales Minister for Education Bob Heffron, accepted on 9 July 1946. The university, originally named the "New South Wales University of Technology", gained its statutory status through the enactment of New South Wales University of Technology Act 1949 (NSW) by Parliament of New South Wales in Sydney in 1949. In March 1948, classes commenced with a first intake of 46 students pursuing programs including civil engineering, mechanical engineering, mining engineering and electrical engineering. At that time the thesis programmes were innovative. Each course embodied a specified and substantial period of practical training in the relevant industry. It was also unprecedented for tertiary institutions at that time to include compulsory instruction in humanities. Initially, the university operated from the inner Sydney Technical College city campus at Ultimo. However, in 1951, the Parliament of New South Wales passed the New South Wales University of Technology (Construction) Act 1951 (NSW) to provide funding and allow buildings to be erected at the Kensington site where the university is now located.

University of New South Wales:

In 1958, the university's name was changed to the "University of New South Wales" to reflect its transformation from a technology-based institution to a generalist university. In 1960, it established Faculties of Arts and Medicine, and shortly after decided to add a Faculty of Law, which came into being in 1971. The university's first director was Arthur Denning (1949–1952), who made important contributions to founding the university. In 1953, he was replaced by Professor Philip Baxter, who continued as vice-chancellor when this position's title was changed in 1955. Baxter's dynamic, if authoritarian, management was central to the University's first twenty years. His visionary, but at times controversial, energies saw the university grow from a handful to 15,000 students by 1968. He also pioneered new scientific and technological disciplines despite the criticism of traditionalists. Staff recruited both locally and overseas, soon established a wide international reputation. The new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rupert Myers (1969–1981), brought consolidation and an urbane management style to a period of expanding student numbers, demand for change in University style, and challenges of student unrest. The stabilising techniques of the 1980s managed by Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Birt (1981–1992) provided a firm base for the energetic corporatism and campus enhancements pursued by the subsequent Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Niland (1992–2002). The 1990s saw the addition of Fine Arts to the University. The University established Colleges in Newcastle (1951) and Wollongong (1961), which eventually became the University of Newcastle and the University of Wollongong in 1965 and 1975 respectively. At present, private sources contribute 45% of its annual funding. The University is home to the Lowy Cancer Research Centre, one of Australia's largest cancer research facilities. The centre, costing $127 million, is Australia's first facility to bring together researchers in childhood and adult cancer. In 2003, the University was invited by Singapore's Economic Development Board to consider opening a campus there. Following a 2004 decision to proceed, the first phase of a planned $200 m campus opened in 2007. Students and staff were sent home and the campus closed after one semester following substantial financial losses.

Governance:

The University is governed by Council of 15 members including parliamentary and ex-officio members, members elected by staff, students and graduates of the University, and members appointed by the Minister for Education or by Council itself. It is responsible for acting on the University's behalf to promote its objectives and interests. The governance of universities has come under increasing scrutiny nationally in recent years, and UNSW and its Council are committed to meeting this scrutiny by demonstrating the highest standards. The principal academic body is the Academic Board which receives advice on academic matters from the Faculties, College (Australian Defence Force Academy), and the Boards of Studies. It is responsible for academic policy setting, academic strategy via its eight standing committees, approval and delivery of programs, and academic standards. The Board comprises 56 members, including the Vice-Chancellor, members of the Executive Team, Deans and Faculty Presiding Members, 24 members elected from the academic staff and four from the student body. 

Membership also includes 'such other persons' approved by Council. The Academic Board advises the Vice-Chancellor and Council on matters relating to teaching, scholarship and research and takes decisions on delegation from Council. Its purpose is to make academic policy; approve courses and programs; further and co-ordinate the work of the Faculties and other academic units; and support teaching, scholarship and research. The chief executive officer of the University is the Vice-Chancellor and President. The Deputy Vice-Chancellors and Pro-Vice-Chancellors are responsible for academic operations, research policy, research management, quality assurance and external relations including sponsorship. The Chancellor is usually an eminent member of society. (See UNSW Chancellors and UNSW Vice-Chancellors). The Faculties and boards are responsible for the teaching and examining of subjects within their scope and the Academic Board co-ordinates and furthers their work.

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is an Australian public research university in Sydney. Founded in 1850, it is Australia's first university and is regarded as one of its most prestigious, ranked as the world's 27th most reputable university. In 2013, it was ranked 37th and in the top 0.3% in the QS World University Rankings. Additionally, Sydney graduates have been ranked the most employable in Australia and 14th most employable in the world, in the top 0.1%. Five Nobel and two Crafoord laureates have been affiliated with the university as graduates and faculty. Its campus is ranked in the top 10 of the world's most beautiful universities by the British Daily Telegraph and The Huffington Post, spreading across the inner-city suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington. The university comprises 16 faculties and schools, through which it offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. In 2011 it had 32,393 undergraduate and 16,627 graduate students.

Sydney University is a member of the prestigious Group of Eight, Academic Consortium 21, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning, the Australia-Africa Universities Network (AAUN), the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Worldwide Universities Network. The University is also colloquially known as one of Australia's sandstone universities. In 1848, in the New South Wales Legislative Council, William Wentworth, a graduate of the University of Cambridge and Charles Nicholson, a medical graduate from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, proposed a plan to expand the existing Sydney College into a larger university. Wentworth argued that a state university was imperative for the growth of a society aspiring towards self-government, and that it would provide the opportunity for "the child of every class, to become great and useful in the destinies of his country". It would take two attempts on Wentworth's behalf, however, before the plan was finally adopted.

The university was established via the passage of the University of Sydney Act, on 24 September 1850 and was assented on 1 October 1850 by Sir Charles Fitzroy. Two years later, the university was inaugurated on 11 October 1852 in the Big Schoolroom of what is now Sydney Grammar School. The first principal was John Woolley, the first professor of chemistry and experimental physics was John Smith. On 27 February 1858 the university received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, giving degrees conferred by the university rank and recognition equal to those given by universities in the United Kingdom. By 1859, the university had moved to its current site in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown. In 1858, the passage of the electoral act provided for the university to become a constituency for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as soon as there were 100 graduates of the university holding higher degrees eligible for candidacy. This seat in the Parliament of New South Wales was first filled in 1876, but was abolished in 1880 one year after its second member, Edmund Barton, who later became the first Prime Minister of Australia, was elected to the Legislative Assembly. Most of the estate of John Henry Challis was bequeathed to the university, which received a sum of £200,000 in 1889. This was thanks in part due to William Montagu Manning (Chancellor 1878–95) who argued against the claims by British Tax Commissioners. The following year seven professorships were created: anatomy; zoology; engineering; history; law; logic and mental philosophy; and modern literature.

Rankings:

The 2014–15 QS World University Rankings placed the University of Sydney 37th and in the top 0.3% overall in the world. Additionally, it ranked Sydney as the 27th most reputable university in the world. Sydney is one of only 12 universities in the world to receive a "5 Star Plus" rating by QS based on criteria including "research, employability, teaching, facilities, internationalisation, innovation, specialist criteria and inclusiveness". The 2016 QS Graduate Employability Rankings placed University of Sydney graduates 14th in the world, 1st in Australia, 2nd in the Asia Pacific region and in the top 0.1% in the world. The 2013 QS World University Rankings by Subject placed Sydney in the top 20 in the world in 11 subjects; more than a third of the 30 measured. The University of Sydney was ranked 8th in the world for Education, 9th in Accounting and Finance and 10th in Law. Additionally, Sydney was placed 12th in English Language and Literature, History and Archaeology, Linguistics and Civil Engineering and Structural Engineering, the highest in Australia of those subjects. Psychology at Sydney was ranked 14th, Pharmacy and Pharmacology, and Communication and Media were ranked 16th, and the Sydney Medical School was ranked 17th.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-2016 placed the University of Sydney 56th, 9th in the Asia Pacific and in the top 0.6% in the world. Additionally, it was ranked in the top bracket for teaching and research. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013 placed Sydney 21st in Arts and Humanities, 25th in Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health, 36th in Social Sciences and 46th in Engineering and Technology. The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2013, placed Sydney as the 49th most reputable in the world. In the 2014 Shanghai Ranking published by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, the University of Sydney was ranked in the 101–150th bracket and 7th in the Asia Pacific region. In the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities 2015 by National Taiwan University, Sydney is ranked 36th in the world, 3rd in the Asia Pacific and 2nd in Australia. In the 2013–14 "University Ranking for Academic Performance", the University of Sydney is ranked 39th in the world and 2nd in Australia. The 2014 US News & World Report's Best Global Universities ranking placed Sydney 45th in the world, 5th in the Asia Pacific and 2nd in Australasia. In 2014, the Centre for World University Rankings ranked Sydney 95th, in the top 1% in the world and 1st in Australia. The number of rich Sydney alumni was ranked fifth outside the United States, behind Oxford, Mumbai, Cambridge and LSE according to the ABC NEWS. Business magazine Spear's placed the University of Sydney 44th in the world in its table of "World's top 100 universities for producing millionaires". In 2012, The New York Times placed the University of Sydney's graduates at 49th in the world for employability, determined by surveys of thousands of top company recruiters. In 2014, The Financial Times ranked the Sydney Business School's Master of Management program 47th in the world, 4th in the Asia Pacific and 1st in Australia. Additionally, The Australian Financial Review ranked Sydney's Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) 1st in Australia.

Notable Alumni:

Throughout its history, University of Sydney alumni have made significant contributions to both Australia and the world. Australian leaders who have graduated from the University include two governors-general, seven Australian prime ministers, the most of any university, including Australia's first, Sir Edmund Barton, four chief justices of the High Court of Australia, and twenty other justices of the High Court. Internationally, University of Sydney alumni include the third president of the United Nations General Assembly and a president of the International Court of Justice (in each case, the only Australians to date to hold such positions), and five Nobel laureates and two Crafoord laureates. The University, being one of the first open to women throughout the world, produced graduate Jane Foss Barff who was an advocate for women's education and a founder of the Women's College. According to ABC NEWS, the university produced more ultra high-net-worth alumni than any other Australian university and the number of rich Sydney alumni was ranked fifth outside the United States, behind Oxford, Mumbai, Cambridge and LSE.

Endowments and Research Grants:

The University of Sydney currently has financial endowments totalling $829 million. A drop due to recent downturn of the global economic situation. The university's turnover, in turn, was A$1.3 billion in 2008. Latest figures show that the University of Sydney has received the highest amount of research grants, which may demonstrate its research competitiveness and the size of its students and staff body. The University of Sydney also has the second largest (behind Monash University) body of students and researchers among Australian universities. The University of Sydney secured more than $46 million in funding in the 2007 round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grant, Capacity Building and Fellowship awards, the largest allocation to any university in the state. The James Jones foundation has announced the 2007 recipient of the bicentennial award in university research linked to applied agricultural economics. The award includes various grant and research opportunities that may be taken up by both staff members and senior students. Five of the university's affiliated medical research facilities secured $38 million in the Australian government's 2006 budget, part of $163 million made available for a variety of development and expansion projects.

Main Campus:

The main campus has been ranked in the top 10 of the world's most beautiful universities by the British Daily Telegraph, The Huffington Post and Disney Pixar, among others such as Oxford and Cambridge and is spread across the inner-city suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington. Originally housed in what is now Sydney Grammar School, in 1855 the government granted land in Grose Farm to the university, three kilometres from the city, which is now the main Camperdown campus. The architect Edmund Blacket designed the original Neo-Gothic sandstone Quadrangle and Great Tower buildings, which were completed in 1862. The rapid expansion of the university in the mid-20th century resulted in the acquisition of land in Darlington across City Road. The Camperdown/Darlington campus houses the university's administrative headquarters, and the Faculties of Arts, Science, Education and Social Work, Pharmacy, Veterinary Science, Economics and Business, Architecture, and Engineering. It is also the home base of the large Faculty of Medicine, which has numerous affiliated teaching hospitals across the state.

The main campus is also the focus of the university's student life, with the student-run University of Sydney Union (known as 'the Union') in possession of three buildings – Wentworth, Manning and Holme Buildings. These buildings house a large proportion of the university's catering outlets, and provide space for recreational rooms, bars and function centres. One of the largest activities organised by the Union is the Orientation Week (or 'O-week'), centring on stalls set up by clubs and societies on the Front Lawns. The university is currently undertaking a large capital works program with the aim of revitalising the campus and providing more office, teaching and student space. The program will see the amalgamation of the smaller science and technical libraries into a larger library, and the construction of a central administration and student services building along City Road. A new building for the School of Information Technologies opened in late 2006 and has been located on a site adjacent to the Seymour Centre. The busy Eastern Avenue thoroughfare has been transformed into a pedestrian plaza and a new footbridge has been built over City Road. The new home for the Sydney Law School, located alongside Fisher Library on the site of the old Edgeworth David and Stephen Roberts buildings, has been completed.

Valparaiso University

Valparaiso University, commonly known as Valpo, is a regionally accredited private university located in Valparaiso, Indiana, United States. The university is a coed, four-year, private institution that enrolls about 4,500 students from over 50 countries on a campus of 350 acres (140 ha). Valpo consists of five undergraduate colleges, a graduate school, and a law school. It is the largest independent Lutheran university in the United States and is home to the second-largest collegiate chapel in the world, the Chapel of the Resurrection. Originally named Valparaiso Male and Female College, Valparaiso University was founded in 1859 as one of the first coeducation colleges in the United States. Due to reverses brought about by the Civil War, the college was forced to close its doors in 1871. Two years later it was revived by educator Henry Baker Brown and named Northern Indiana Normal School and Business Institute. At the turn of the 20th century, Brown changed the college's name to Valparaiso College, and shortly after it was rechartered as Valparaiso University. Initially founded by Methodists, in 1925 the school was purchased by the Lutheran University Association, which continues to operate it today.

Valparaiso Male and Female College:

In 1859, citizens of Valparaiso were so supportive of the placement of the college that they raised $11,000 to encourage the Methodist Church to locate there. The school opened on September 21, 1859, to 75 students, and was one of the first coeducational colleges in the nation. Students paid tuition expenses of $8 per term (three terms per year), plus nearby room and board costs of approximately $2 per week. Instruction at the college actually began with young children, and most of the students were in elementary and grade levels. Courses at the collegiate level included math, literature, history, sciences, and philosophy. Courses stressing the Christian faith included “moral philosophy” and “moral science.” Due to the fallout of the Civil War, the school closed in 1871. At this time, most men (both students and administrative members) had enrolled in the army. In addition, Indiana passed an 1867 bill that provided state support for public education, and the Methodists’ broad statewide efforts toward higher education meant that none of the schools were self-sustaining. The combination proved too much to overcome for the Male and Female College.

Campus:

The Old Campus of Valparaiso University is both adjacent to and a part of the historic downtown district of the city. Old Campus is the site of the School of Law, made up of Wesemann Hall and Heritage Hall. Heritage was the oldest remaining building on the campus, and was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In 2009, the school started a restoration project, essentially rebuilding the facility. The school's fraternities and the Kade-Duesenberg German House and Cultural Center are located on old campus as was the Martin Luther King, Jr., Cultural Center before acts of vandalism and arson destroyed the building in 2009. Old Campus is also the site of Valpo's Doppler weather radar. Located north of Old Campus is the College of Nursing, whose students use SIMMAN, a robotic patient simulator used to train students in real life treatment to better serve their education.

Beginning in the 1950s, the school expanded eastward to occupy what is now known as "new campus. Today, it is center of the university, home to thousands of students in nine dormitories and most of the academic buildings. At the center of campus is the Chapel of the Resurrection, a 98-foot (30 m)-high building that is the home of Valparaiso University's many worship services and convocations. Built on the highest elevation of land on the university's campus, it has been a Northwest Indiana landmark since 1959. In 2011, Rev. Mark and Kathy Helge gave a $15-million gift for a major expansion to the chapel. The 11,000-square-foot (1,000 m2) addition opened in the fall of 2015. The Christopher Center Library (built 2004) houses over 500,000 books and numerous video and audio resources. It is a popular place for students to gather and study. The Valparaiso University Center for the Arts (VUCA) offers multiple performance facilities, which are most notably used by students to produce full scale theatrical performances every year. The performances and exhibits in the Center for the Arts are always open to the public, and the Center houses the nationally renowned Brauer Museum of Art.

Kallay-Christopher Hall opened in 2004 and is home to the Department of Geography and Meteorology. Kallay-Christopher has an observation deck and large weather lab facilities. Adjoining Kallay-Christopher Hall is Schnabel Hall, which is home to communications students, WVUR-FM, the university's student-run radio station, and VUTV, the university's student-run television station. The Donald V. Fites Innovations Center, an addition to the College of Engineering's Gellersen Hall, was completed in the summer of 2011. The $13-million, LEED-certified building contains two suites of labs that support advanced undergraduate research in areas such as materials science and energy systems.[20] The College of Engineering has both a 16-inch (406 mm) computerized reflecting telescope to aid in NASA research and VisBox-X2, a virtual reality system used to immerse students in a visualized three-dimensional image. The 52,000-square-foot (4,800 m2) Arts and Sciences Building, located adjacent to the Christopher Center for Library and Information Resources, opened in 2012 and houses state-of-the-art classrooms and offices for faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences. A "STEM village" consisting of three new buildings will soon replace Neils Science Center and become the new home for the biology, chemistry, and physics departments. The first of these buildings is scheduled to be completed in 2017. Neils Science Center was erected in 1974 and includes an astronomical observatory, greenhouse, and a now decommissioned sub-critical nuclear reactor that helped the facility receive an Atomic Energy Commission citation as a model undergraduate physics laboratory.

The James S. Markiewicz Solar Energy Research Facility was dedicated in September 2013. Professors and students use the energy research facility, profiled in The Atlantic, in developing methods to produce low-carbon magnesium with 90 percent less fossil fuel energy than standard production methods. The 202,000-square-foot (18,800 m2), $74 million Harre Union opened in 2009. Named in honor of former University President Alan F. Harre, who retired in 2008, it is more than three times the size of the previous union. The Harre Union has consolidated all dining services on campus, with the exception of the law school. It has room for all student organizations on campus, as well as a new bookstore, lounge areas, student mailboxes for every student on campus, entertainment areas, a large ballroom, a career center, and an outdoor terrace overlooking the Chapel. The design architect was Sasaki Associates, Inc. and the architect of record was Design Organization. In June 2013, the Duesenberg Welcome Center on campus was completed for visitors coming to campus. The creation of this building was funded by Valparaiso University alumni, Richard and Phyllis Duesenberg.