ANU College

Our story

Building blocks

In 1946, Federal Parliament passed a Bill establishing ANU as the country’s national university. The University comprised four founding research institutes, one of which was physics, which continues today as the Research School of Physics. 

Testament to the University’s success, these founding institutions expanded over the next 50 years into a broad range of disciplines, including those which now make up the College of Science: astronomy and astrophysics, biology, chemistry, Earth sciences, environment and society, mathematics, physics, and science communication.

The University's illustrious research history continues to contribute to its ranking as one of the world’s top ten institutions for education in environmental, Earth and marine sciences, while placed in the top 50 for a broad range of scientific research areas including physics and astronomy, metallurgy and materials, mathematics and chemistry.

Our vision

Our vision is to create and sustain a rich teaching and learning environment in the Joint Colleges for both teaching staff and students. An environment that embodies excellence and innovation in teaching; integration of research and teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels and collegiality and shared experiences in teaching and learning for all science academics. We will support and value our teaching staff by providing them with development opportunities and a resource rich environment as well as recognising and rewarding excellence.

Strategic goals

We are committed to providing consistently high quality learning experiences and outcomes for all our students and to support our academic staff in achieving these objectives. The following goals are designed to help us to direct our teaching and learning to ensure a successful learning environment for all our students:

• Develop the capabilities and resources available through the Science Teaching and Learning Centre;
• Evaluate and create new initiatives to support student learning;
• Provide professional development opportunities to Associate Directors (Science Education) and other teaching staff;
• Coordinate the introduction and development of new approaches to teaching and learning in Science;
• Recognise and reward excellence;
• Develop and support sponsorships and scholarships. 

Excellence in education

We have many innovative and creative teachers who apply their ideas to their teaching approaches. The most important outcome of these approaches is improved student learning and we are collating data to demonstrate the successful approaches used by our academic teaching staff.

This excellence is demonstrated through:

• Teaching Awards won by the Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT);
• Teaching grants awarded to our staff, for the ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Enhancement Grants and the ANU Linkage for Learning and Teaching Grants;
• Educational Fellowships awarded to our staff to develop their teaching initiatives;
• Strategic teaching initiatives that focus on effective student learning such as the Peer Assisted Learning Project and the introduction of digital learning technologies, MOOCS, and variations of the ‘flipped classroom’ teaching approaches in our course delivery;
• Advanced programs for high achieving students like our very successful Bachelor of Philosopohy (Honours) (PhB Hons) program.

Study

Befitting the University’s place among the top universities on the planet, our academics produce research which changes lives, and life as we know it. We are committed to solving problems through big picture and applied scientific research, to better health, and to the sustainable, secure and equitable use of resources around the world.