Griffith University
Template:Infobox Australian University Griffith University is an Australian public university with five campuses in Brisbane and one at the Gold Coast. It currently has a total of some 27,000 students and 3000 staff. The University is named after the former premier of Queensland, Sir Samuel Griffith.
The university was founded in 1971 with the opening of the Nathan campus. This campus is known for its natural setting. Surrounding the expansive cluster of buildings is bush and forest reserves with a network of paths.
The university has since created campuses at Logan and the Gold Coast, and acquired the teachers' college at Mt Gravatt (which was renamed as a Griffith campus), the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and the Queensland College of Art. By 2005, the Gold Coast campus will be the largest Griffith campus.
After first opening its doors, Griffith soon became famous for its modern environmental science, Asian studies and international business courses. Griffith now boasts arts, business, science and law schools and will be opening a medicine and dentistry school in 2005.
The university's motto is "get smarter", and was listed second in Queensland (after the University of Queensland) in terms of prestige by the Good Universities Guide. Recent Griffith promotions have included such famous names as Kim Phuc, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Ray Charles, Desmond Tutu and Bob Geldof who promoted centres for photojournalism, assisting the wrongly accused, educating blind children and promoting responsible ecological practices, respectively.
On 1 March 2004, like nearly all other Australian universities, the university's administration agreed to raise the tuition fees (except for nursing and education courses) by 25% and accept full-fee-paying domestic students, in line with Federal Government tertiary education reforms. Opponents of the fee-hikes suggested that Griffith University could instead save money on its advertising campaigns.
Griffith University is a member of Innovative Research Universities Australia (IRU Australia).