Western Sydney University

The University of Western Sydney (UWS) began operation on 1st January 1989, under the terms of the University of Western Sydney Act, 1988 which had been passed by the New South Wales Parliament in December 1988. However, the predecessors of the University date back as far as 1891 with the establishment of the Hawkesbury Agricultural College. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 under the terms of the University of Western Sydney Act, 1988, which created a federated network university with an amalgamation between two trade schools – Nepean College of Advanced Education and Hawkesbury Agricultural College. The Macarthur Institute of Higher Education was incorporated into the university in 1989, and in 2001 the University of Western Sydney was restructured as a single multi-campus university rather than as a federation. In 2015, the university underwent a rebranding which resulted in a change in name from the University of Western Sydney to Western Sydney University.