Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a public university in Western Australia. It is named in honour of the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Australian university named after a woman.Gaining university status in 1991, it was formed from an amalgamation of tertiary colleges with a history dating back to 1902 when the Claremont Teachers College was established,making it the modern descendant of the first tertiary institution in Western Australia.
The university offers more than 300 courses across two Perth metropolitan campuses, in Joondalup and Mount Lawley, and a regional campus in Bunbury, 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of Perth;many courses are also offered for study online. Additionally, the university has partnerships with several education institutions to conduct courses and programs offshore.In 2020, the university enrolled over 31,000 students at undergraduate and postgraduate level,approximately 7,000 of whom were international students.
Amongst its divisions are the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), a performing arts training academy; 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 Western Australian Screen Academy. The university also has a notable cybersecurity research and education program, being one of two federal Academic Centres of Cyber Security Excellence and the only Australian member university in the International Cyber Security Center of Excellence.
In the 2022 Good Universities Guide, ECU rated among the top three Australian universities for teaching quality, skills development, student support, student-to-teacher ratio, learning resources and overall experience.It was also one of two national universities to have maintained a 5-star rating in teaching quality for 15 years.The university is also a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, International Association of Law Schools and the International Cyber Security Center of Excellence.
