About Us

Curtin University (previously as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology) is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia from 1941 to 1945, and is the largest university in Western Australia, with 58,607 students in 2022.

WAIT was established in 1966. Curtin was conferred university status after legislation was passed by the Parliament of Western Australia in 1986. Since then, the university has expanded its presence and has campuses in Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai and Mauritius, and has ties with 90 exchange universities in 20 countries. The university comprises five main faculties with over 95 specialists centres. It had a campus in Sydney from 2005 to 2016.

Curtin University is a member of the Australian Technology Network. Curtin University is active in research in a range of academic and practical fields. Curtin is the only Western Australian university whose students have won the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering's Postgraduate Student Gold Medal as at 2020.

Curtin University was founded in 1966 as the Western Australian Institute of Technology.[24] The four people who drove its establishment were Lesley Phillips, who was Superintendent of Technical Education from 1943 to 1948; George Hayman, who held the same position from 1948  until 1962; T.L. Robertson, Director of Education; and Haydn Williams, Director of Technical Education.[