Partner Universities

Year of foundation: 1970
Approx. number of students: 15,600
Period of study: Mid July-End November; Mid February-End June
MCI partner since: 2008

The City

Townsville is located on the north-eastern coast of Australia, in the state of Queensland. Adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, it is in the dry tropics region of Queensland. Townsville is Australia's largest urban center north of the Sunshine Coast, with estimated population of approx. 180,000 persons.

Popular attractions include 'The Strand', a long tropical beach and garden strip; Riverway, a riverfront parkland attraction located on the banks of Ross River; Reef HQ, a large tropical aquarium holding many of the Great Barrier Reef's native flora and fauna; the Museum of Tropical Queensland, built around a display of relics from the sunken British warship HMS Pandora; and Magnetic Island, a large neighbouring island, the vast majority of which is national park.

The University

James Cook University (JCU) is the second oldest university in Queensland and the first tertiary education institution in North Queensland. JCU is ranked among the best universities in Queensland and is one of only 17 Australian universities that was listed in the ARWU top 400 academic world universities in 2008. The main fields of research include marine sciences, biodiversity, sustainable management of tropical ecosystems, tropical health care and tourism.

JCU's main campus moved from a small campus in the coastal city of Townsville (Pimlico suburb) to a 386-hectare area of bush land in the suburb of Douglas, near the army base and the lee of Mount Stuart, during the early 1970s. It has a widely spread out area of buildings in between native managed bushland.

The Cairns Campus of James Cook University is located 15 kilometres NNW of Cairns CBD, a city on the east coast of Australia, in the suburb of Smithfield. Opened in 1987, this campus is situated in a mountainous rainforest area of tropical North Queensland.

www.jcu.edu.au

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