Summary

The Australian National University was founded in 1946. The public institution’s main Acton Campus is located in Australia’s capital city, Canberra. Other university sites include the Mount Stromlo Observatory and the Siding Spring Observatory, both associated with the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Tuition costs vary by subject and are generally higher for international students. University housing is available for both undergraduate and graduate students; in a recent year, more than 20 percent of the university's student body lived on campus. A year of housing is guaranteed for first-year undergraduate students from outside the Canberra region. 

The university has seven colleges: arts and social sciences; Asia and the Pacific; business and economics; engineering and computer science; law; medicine, biology and environment; and physical and mathematical sciences. The language of instruction is English, and the university’s academic calendar is semester-based. The university has student exchange partnerships with upward of 150 universities in more than 30 countries, including the University of Montreal in Canada and the Technical University of Munich in Germany. As is true at other Australian universities, undergraduate students can enroll in degree programs that place them on a path to earn an honors degree – a more advanced credential than a bachelor's degree. Honors degree programs focus heavily on research. Some of the Australian National University's many research facilities are the John Curtin School of Medical Research, the Climate Change Institute and the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health.