Quick facts and figures about Deakin

Facts

1. Deakin was established by the Victorian Parliament in 1974 as a 'university in the Geelong area'. Deakin began teaching on 1 April 1977.

2. Deakin University is named after Alfred Deakin, who is often called Australia's Voice of Federation and was Prime Minister three times between 1903 and 1910.

3. Deakin was the first Australian university to be named after a politician.

4. When it was established, Deakin incorporated two existing Geelong-based institutions, the Geelong State College and the Gordon Institute of Technology.

5. Deakin initially operated from four sites, all in Geelong: the Waurn Ponds Campus it inherited from the Gordon Institute, the Vines Road Campus of the Geelong State Teachers College and two smaller locations.

6. Deakin had approximately 2,500 students in its first year (1977), rising to 4,800 in 1980.

7. By 1984, Deakin had consolidated its operations at the Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds.

8. Deakin's growth outside Geelong began in 1990 when it amalgamated with the Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education. This continued in 1991 when it amalgamated with Victoria College, which operated from Burwood, Toorak and Clayton.

9. The amalgamations with the Warrnambool Institute and Victoria College saw Deakin's student numbers more than triple in the five years to 1992.

10. In 1993 Deakin was described as the 'Rolls Royce' of universities offering distance education.

11. Deakin was one of the first Australian universities to embrace professional and continuing education to corporate clients, establishing Deakin Australia (now known as DeakinPrime) in 1993.

12. In the mid-1970s, the disused woolstores on Geelong's waterfront was one site considered and rejected for the proposed university that was to become Deakin. In 1996, this idea came to fruition with the opening of the Geelong Waterfront Campus. The Campus is the result of an award-winning reconstruction of disused woolstores on the waterfront in central Geelong.

13. Enrolments at the Geelong Waterfront Campus rose by 77% in the five years leading up to 2008.

14. Deakin's Institute of Koorie Education has provided a unique community-based mode of delivering courses to Indigenous Australians since its inception in 1991.

15. Deakin University has the largest number of Indigenous students of any Victorian University.

16. In 2008, the Deakin University School of Medicine opened becoming Victoria's first rural and regional medical school.

17. In 2009, the refurbished Dennys Lascelles Building was reopened, housing the Deakin Geelong Health Precinct and the Alfred Deakin Research Institute.

Figures - 2011

1. Over 41,000 higher education students study at Deakin. Of these:

   • More than 11,000 study off campus
   • More than 8,000 are international students who come from over 100 different countries
   • 517 are studying in the new Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery
   • 68% are undergraduates
   • 60% are female
   • 35% study part time
   • 59% are aged between 20 and 30 (inclusive)
   • 21% study at regional campuses in Geelong and Warrnambool.

2. Deakin's domestic students are from diverse backgrounds:

   • 23% are from regional or remote areas
   • 13% come from a low socio-economic status background
   • 2% are from a non-English speaking background
   • 2% are Indigenous.
3. An additional 50,000 students are enrolled in professional and continuing education under the corporate arm, DeakinPrime.

Other

• Deakin employs more than 2,700 full time and fractional full-time staff
• Deakin's library holds 1,597,168 books and 90,993 serials (including electronic journals)
• Deakin's Campuses cover 450 hectares and university buildings have a total floor area of 414,000 square metres.

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