Australian Catholic University
www.acu.edu.au (official website)
About Australian Catholic University
Australian Catholic University is a public university with a Catholic identity. It opened on 1 January 1991, when four Catholic tertiary institutions in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory were amalgamated. Those institutions had mostly trained teachers and nurses, and their roots reach back to the mid-1800s through more than twenty earlier bodies.
The university operates campuses in Sydney (Strathfield, North Sydney and Blacktown), Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Ballarat, and has a centre in Rome. Its course areas include education, nursing and health sciences, psychology, theology and philosophy, business, law, and the arts, and all undergraduates study a Catholic-themed core curriculum. Its heritage-listed Mount St Mary campus at Strathfield is among its older sites. The university draws on its Catholic tradition for its stated focus on service and social justice.
- Founded
- 1991
- Campuses
- Strathfield (NSW), North Sydney (NSW), Blacktown (NSW), Melbourne (VIC), Brisbane (QLD), Canberra (ACT), Ballarat (VIC)
- Known for
- Catholic identity and core curriculumNursing and health programsTeacher educationMulti-state campus network
Written by us from the university's own website and public sources; check details with the university. As at October 2026. Sources: en.wikipedia.org. Report an inaccuracy.
World ranking history
| Ranking | Edition | World rank | In Australia | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| THE | 2027 | 401–450 | 26 | THE profile |
| 2026 | 401–500 | 26 | THE profile | |
| ARWU | 2026 | 501–600 | 24 | ARWU profile |
| 2025 | 601–700 | 26 | ARWU profile | |
| QS | 2027 | Not in top 300* | – | QS 2027 table |
| 2026 | 851–900 | 33 | QS profile |
Ranks as published; bands such as 301–350 are not exact places, and "=" marks a tie. "In Australia" is the position among Australian universities in the same edition; universities sharing a band or a tie share a position. Each ranking measures different things, mostly research, and none of them is combined here. *Our copy of QS 2027 covers ranks 1–300 only.
Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings (timeshighereducation.com). Source: Academic Ranking of World Universities, ShanghaiRanking Consultancy (shanghairanking.com). Source: QS Quacquarelli Symonds (www.qs.com). Copyright © QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. Rank figures are reproduced as single facts with attribution; copyright stays with each publisher and we will remove them on request. See data sources.
About this profile
University category: TEQSA National Register (Australian University). State and public/private status: Department of Education list of higher education institutions; the Department lists it as multi-state. Students: total enrolled students, all levels of course, 2024, Department of Education Higher Education Statistics (© Commonwealth of Australia, CC BY 4.0).