Sydney is home to numerous institutions of higher education, including five major universities: Macquarie University (founded in 1964), with about 22,000 students; University of New South Wales (1948), with about 30,000 students; University of Sydney (1850), Australia's first university, with about 35,000 students; University of Western Sydney (1989), with about 26,000 students; and the University of Technology, Sydney (1965 as NSW Institute of Technology, then given university status in 1988), with about 26,000 students.
Cultural institutions in Sydney include several of the country's most important museums. The Art Gallery of New South Wales, established in 1874, houses some of the finest works of art in Australia, including Asian, European, and Australian collections. It also includes the Yiribana Gallery, which houses the world's largest exhibit of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture. The Australian Museum, founded in 1827 and the country's first museum, contains natural history and anthropology exhibits. The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (1880) comprises the Powerhouse Museum, which includes science and technology exhibits, and the Sydney Observatory astronomical museum. The turbulent history of Sydney from 1788 to 1850, including the effects of European colonization on the local Aboriginal population, is the subject of multimedia exhibits at the Museum of Sydney (1995). The State Library of New South Wales has a collection of 4 million items, including the nation's most important collection of Australian archival material in the Mitchell Library (1906).
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Sydney Information info
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