The University of South Australia

The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public university in the Australian state of South Australia. It was formed in 1991 with the merger of the South Australian Institute of Technology and Colleges of Advanced Education. The legislation to establish and name the new University of South Australia was introduced in 1990 by the Hon Mike Rann MP, Minister of Employment and Further Education.

With more than 33,000 students, the university is South Australia's largest; more than 10,000 students are international, with almost half studying in Adelaide and the remainder offshore.

Under the University's Act, its original mission was "to preserve, extend and disseminate knowledge through teaching, research, scholarship and consultancy, and to provide educational programs that will enhance the diverse cultural life of the wider community." In 2013 a new Vision, Mission and Values statement was released as part of a new strategic direction, "Crossing the Horizon".

UniSA was the youngest Australian institution to be named in the top 50 of 2013 The Times Higher Education's Top 100 global universities aged under 50.

The University is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities. It has two Adelaide city centre campuses, two Adelaide metropolitan campuses, and two South Australian regional campuses.

The South Australian School of Arts can trace its history back to 1861 and the pioneering work of Charles Hill and H. P. Gill, through an unbroken succession of titles and changes in emphasis. It can claim to be one of the oldest art schools in Australia, and the oldest public art school.See South Australian School of Design for more detail.

The South Australian School of Arts, an established school within the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, provides the most prestigious and valuable visual arts scholarship in Australia, the Gordon Samstag Scholarship.