James Cook University

In 1957, Professor John Douglas Story, vice chancellor of the University of Queensland, proposed a regional university college be established to cater to the people of North Queensland. At that time, the only higher education providers were located in the state capital, Brisbane. On 27 February 1961, the University College of Townsville was opened.

The university became the James Cook University of North Queensland with the passage of an act by the Queensland Parliament. It was assented by Queen Elizabeth II herself on 20 April 1970 during a royal visit to Queensland, with the Queen also officially opening the university.

In 2020, James Cook University celebrated its 50th anniversary with a Treasures exhibition, showcasing 50 collection items from Special Collections, Eddie Koiki Mabo Library, James Cook University, Townsville.

The rare collection item – 'James Cook University Development: Pimlico to the First Chancellor archival footage, 1960 – 1970' was one of the Treasures selected for the anniversary year. The 12min film preserved on NQHeritage, the University Library's Special Collections online repository, shows footage of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II arriving at the official ceremony and being introduced to the official party. Their Royal Highnesses first appear in the film at 6:06 minutes.

The namesake is British sea captain James Cook, who is best known for being the first European to explore the eastern coast of Australia. A year after JCU's proclamation, Cyclone Althea struck the Townsville region. This, together with the destruction caused by Cyclone Tracy in Darwin 1974, prompted the establishment of a cyclone research facility. The Cyclone Testing Station started out as a small project of Professor Hugh Trollope and began its operations on 1 November 1977 as James Cook Cyclone Structural Testing Station. Its name was later changed to The Cyclone Testing Station in 2002. The Cyclone Testing Station operates as a self funded unit of the College of Science, Technology and Engineering.

On 1 January 1982, JCU amalgamated with The Townsville College of Advanced Education located adjacent to the main campus in Douglas. The university established a campus in Cairns in 1987 which moved to its current location in the suburb of Smithfield in 1995. On 1 January 1991, the School of Art and Design of the Townsville College of TAFE was transferred to JCU. The current name of James Cook University became official on 1 January 1998. In 2003 the university opened an international campus in Singapore. The university further expanded its presence by establishing another campus in Brisbane, Queensland in 2006.

JCU Singapore moved campuses in February 2015. The Hon. Tony Abbott MP, Prime Minister of Australia officially opened the new JCU Singapore campus at 149 Sims Drive on 28 June 2015. In 2015, JCU opened the JCU Townsville City campus. In 2017, JCU opened the JCU Cairns, Bada-jali campus in Cairns CBD.

JCU celebrated its 50th anniversary on 20 April 2020. To honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' continuing contribution to the university, JCU gave Indigenous names to a number of its locations:

JCU Brisbane, operated by Russo Higher Education, delivers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in accounting, business, education, hospitality and tourism and information technology to international students.

JCU's Mackay Clinical School is located at Mackay Base Hospital. It offers Year 5 and Year 6 of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). Mackay Clinical School also offers Year 1 – 4 in Pharmacy, allowing students to undertake their full course requirements locally. JCU Mackay, located at the Mater Hospital, offers the Bachelor of Nursing Science (Pre-Registration) and provides facilities for medical and dental placements.

JCU's Mount Isa, Murtupuni campus provides training, development and support of the rural and remote health workforce and the management of key health issues in rural and remote settings. The centre offers the Bachelor of Nursing Science with an emphasis on rural, remote and Indigenous health care.

JCU Rockhampton is located in a modern high rise building in the city. Postgraduate students can access the facilities as part of JCU's GP Training Program. The JCU GP Training Program "provides clinicians the opportunity to expand their scope of practice through working in private clinics and in hospitals where they will gain experience treating a range of conditions in low-resource settings".

Controversies

Peter Ridd sacking

In November 2017, marine physicist Peter Ridd commenced proceedings in the Federal Circuit Court against the university alleging that by censuring and eventually dismissing him from his employment, JCU had breached the intellectual freedom provision in its enterprise agreement, in violation of the Fair Work Act. Ridd was a long-term professor who had been the head of the physics department from 2009 to 2016, and head of the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at JCU for 15 years. He had been critical of the accuracy of studies by the JCU marine studies centre. JCU maintained that "it had never sought to silence Ridd, and his sacking was due to 'serious misconduct' and breaches of the university's code".

Following a hearing, the Federal Circuit Court found that the university's actions were unlawful, and in September 2019 ordered JCU to pay $1.2 million in compensation to Ridd. The Court found that JCU had failed to respect the rights to intellectual freedom under its enterprise agreement.

In July 2020, a Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia overturned the Federal Circuit Court's decision, finding that JCU's actions did not breach the Fair Work Act and that the enterprise agreement did not give Ridd an "untrammelled right" to express professional opinions beyond the standards imposed by the university's code of conduct. In February 2021, the High Court of Australia granted special leave to Ridd to appeal the decision. The High Court heard the matter in June 2021.

On October 13, 2021, the High Court unanimously dismissed the appeal brought by Ridd. Although the Court found that some of the university's censures of Ridd were in breach of its enterprise agreement, Ridd ran his case on an "all or nothing" basis, and the High Court found that the termination of his employment was ultimately justified in relying on 18 findings of serious misconduct which were not protected by the university's academic freedom clause.

Sexual harassment and assault

Nine cases of sexual abuse or harassment were reported officially on campus between 2011 and 2016, resulting in one person being removed from a college. These included an allegation of a 2015 incident in which three unidentified males tried to gang-rape a female student.

In 2015 the university promoted a research officer to academic adviser despite his having pleaded guilty to raping a student. The then acting vice-chancellor said there was a failure of internal processes and that the staff member would have been dismissed immediately if senior management had been aware that he had pleaded guilty. However, whistleblowers said there had been a cover-up and that senior management, including the vice-chancellor and the university secretary, had been told of the guilty plea prior to the perpetrator's promotion.