Formation 1999 Location Australia | Type Public Membership 5 | |
The Australian Technology Network (ATN) is a network of five universities from each mainland state of Australia, with a heritage of working closely with industry. The ATN was founded in 1975 as the Directors of Central Institutes of Technology (DOCIT), and was revived in 1999 in its present form.
ATN universities offer applied courses to students who are ready to enter their chosen professions. They teach around 180,000 students, or almost 20% of Australia’s student population. All ATN member universities are featured in the Times Higher Education Supplement's "Top 300 Universities of the World" listing, and the network is considered to be the "technology-focused" group.
History
The ATN originated in 1975 as the "Directors of Central Institutes of Technology (DOCIT)", a conference group consisting of the directors of Australia's leading "institutes of technology". Each of DOCIT's original member institutions (NSWIT, QIT, RMIT, SAIT and WAIT) were located in the central business district of their respective state's capital city, hence they were deemed "central institutes of technology".
DOCIT founded its original member institutes' distinctiveness on their size (they enrolled almost one third of all full-time advanced education students), on the advanced level of their teaching (most of their programs were degrees rather than the diplomas like that of other advanced education institutions) and their conduct of applied research (DEET, 1993:18). They were therefore like a "technology-focused" group.
DOCIT encountered too much opposition to its aspirations, and disbanded in 1982. The conference group was later revived in 1999 as the Australian Technology Network, consisting of: the Curtin University of Technology, Queensland University of Technology, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of South Australia and University of Technology, Sydney. Each ATN member university was granted public university status between 1986 and 1992, however their antecedents make them some of the oldest tertiary institutions in Australia.
Today the ATN's member universities teach around 180,000 students, or almost 20% of Australia’s student population, and 1 in 4 international students in Australia. Its aim today is to help secure Australia’s reputation as the "clever country", contributing to its social and economic wealth by building strategic partnerships and undertaking solution-based research which is relevant to the expectations of industry and the community.