Edith Cowan University (ECU) is an Australian public university located in Perth, Western Australia. It was named after the first woman to be elected to an Australian Parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Australian university named after a woman.
ECU is situated in Western Australia, with more than 30,000 students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, approximately 6,000 of whom are international students originating from over 100 countries outside Australia.
ECU was granted university status in 1991 and was formed from an amalgamation of teachers’ colleges with a history dating back to 1902 when the Claremont Teachers College was established, making ECU the modern descendant of the first institution of higher education in Western Australia.[4]
The university offers more than 300 courses across two metropolitan campuses, in Mount Lawley and Joondalup, and a regional campus in the South West, Bunbury, 200 km south of Perth;[5] many courses are also offered for study online. Additionally, the university has partnerships with several education institutions to conduct courses and programs offshore.[6]
Amongst its divisions are the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), an important performing arts training academy;[7] the School of Nursing and Midwifery, which offers a large undergraduate nursing program and the School of Education which offers a wide range of secondary teaching specialisations. The university also provides Psychology and Community Studies, and is home to the WA Screen Academy, one of Australia’s leading film schools.
In the 2019 Student Experience Survey, the Edith Cowan University recorded the fifth highest student satisfaction rating out of all Australian universities, and the highest student satisfaction rating out of all public Western Australian universities, with an overall satisfaction rating of 83.3
