Griffith 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 was named after the former premier of Queensland, Sir Samuel Griffith.The university was founded in 1971 with the opening of the Nathan campus. 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.
On 1 March 2004, 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, which have recently included such famous names as Kim Phuc, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Ray Charles, Sir Bob Geldof who promoted centres for photojournalism, assisting the wrongly accused, educating blind children and promoting responsible ecological practices, respectively.