NAAUC
The National Association Of Australian University Colleges
OUR MISSION
The National Association of Australian University Colleges will unite University Colleges to empower student leaders.
The National Association of Australian University Colleges (NAAUC) was founded in 1968, for the purpose of representing and providing training and education for students living in university residences around Australia. Since our foundation, the sector has changed significantly. Proudly, we have remained at the forefront of those changes, ensuring students have the skills and knowledge to make the university residential experience the best it can be.
NAAUC coordinates a communication network with residences around the country. Our membership base consists of residences from every state and territory in Australia, including students from all of the Group of Eight Universities. Our network enables us to listen to students, and to share new ideas on how to improve student living on campus.
Our training and services cover all areas of modern residential communities. We aim to provide the best support and education for student in a wide range of disciplines including leadership development, event planning, risk management, and pastoral care.
We are proud to facilitate the space where students can come together to discuss their residential experience, and share their ideas about how it may be improved. Our ambition is that NAAUC will empower leaders to ensure that their residence caters to the needs of all students.
NAAUC’s Values
Community
NAAUC believes that colleges are and should be communities before anything else. Community means many different things to different people. Be it an academic community, a social community, or a community of support, NAAUC believes the shared experience of young people who live and work in close proximity is central to the value of University Colleges.
NAAUC believes the strongest communities are diverse communities, which bring together individuals from different backgrounds, with different experiences, to share different ideas. Colleges exist as places of shared learning and broadening experiences. Deep and meaningful connections between diverse students helps to build global, cultural, and academic awareness, furthering individual student development.
Furthermore, community is the bedrock of wellness, and a fundamental pillar of the university and tertiary education experience. NAAUC believes colleges play an important role in providing communities which students can call their own, and which they feel ownership over.
Within the Association, NAAUC aims to build a community of student leaders which spans the country, and brings together like minded and passionate individuals. This community uses peer learning to support the development of colleges and the development of individuals.
Leadership
NAAUC believes university colleges should be leaders, not only in the residential living sector, but within university campuses, the tertiary education industry, and in broader society. Leadership takes many forms, all of which are important. Each college is expected to develop their own values, and NAAUC believes they should be leaders in their chosen area.
NAAUC believes colleges should be academic leaders, delivering higher quality university education than students would otherwise receive. Leading education includes broad learning, and cross disciplinary learning fostered in college communities. Academic leadership also calls for colleges to be places of thinking, and to attract and showcase contemporary leaders in academia.
NAAUC believes colleges should also be places of cultural leadership, and remain at the forefront of societal and relevant issues in today’s Australia, and the modern world. Colleges can and should enable students to explore global issues, and build communities which take a leading approach in an evolving world. Leadership extends to the students within colleges.
In order to create leading communities, the communities must create leading individuals. This includes not only the development of skills, but the opportunity and support to test those skills and put them to practise in their lives. Colleges have an important role to play in the development of leading young people.
Within the Association, NAAUC aims to collect some of the nations most successful student leaders. NAAUC will be a leader for students across the country, showcasing best practice, highlighting the most successful residences, and providing support to colleagues in their evolution.
Growth
NAAUC believes in striving for and promoting growth and evolution in the College and university living sector, both at a community and personal level. As the peak representative body, NAAUC stands for the unique benefits that College communities can provide to the growth of young people, and supports all College’s in the mission to evolve and adapt every day to remain at the forefront of university communities.
Students in College should be challenged every day to make decisions which build nothing short of the best communities in Australia. NAAUC believes that colleges across the country should be constantly innovating, and be exploring new ways to enrich students' lives and improve the university experience. NAAUC calls for students in colleges to adopt a growth mindset, and continue to develop their own abilities, as well as the quality of their community.
When thinking about growth, NAAUC highlights the difference between perfection and excellence. Growth does not call for students to be fail free, but for students to continuously strive to be at the top of their respective fields and to build their skills.
Within our Association, we strive to collect a team of exceptionally motivated and exceptionally passionate young people, who will work tirelessly to produce the best results, and to support student leaders in all corners of the country to do the same.
NAAUC HISTORY
The National Association of Australian University Colleges NAAUC was born from a gathering of Student Club Presidents in Canberra in 1967, who decided to form an association to forward their goals. In 1986, they decided to merge with the Heads of Residential Colleges and Halls of Australia Association, holding the inaugural National Conference at the University of Sydney.
Upon its inauguration, the Association aimed to: foster goodwill and understanding between members; to implement a system of liaison with Heads of residential communities in order to further the interest of the Association, and to establish a means of communication between residences. 54 years later, these goals remain as relevant as ever, and are joined by objectives that have arisen over the long evolution of University Colleges.
For many years, NAAUC revolved around its Annual Conference with the attendance highly variable depending on the host location. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Executive Committee saw the need to strengthen and expand The Association in order to ensure its long term viability.
The Association began distributing a magazine entitled the National College Educational Review, project handbooks and other newsletters. Consistent and more structured liaison with Heads of residential communities began to occur. Largely due to the increase in communication with residences around the country, NAAUC began an annual pulse/barometer survey to source solid data on residential communities. Operating in a changing political climate, with shifting perceptions on the role that universities and residential communities play, NAAUC started writing submissions to the government.
Moving into the 2000s, NAAUC expanded further to create an ‘On the Road’ program (NOTR). This allows NAAUC to take its academic program to more remote or regional areas that may not have the means or financial access to send delegates to the National Conference. Furthermore, the NOTR program assists residential communities to provide tailored training programs for executive committees and residential assistant teams, by offering an abundance of presentations covering an array of areas. The attendance of student delegates has also grown significantly in the development of the Association. Life member Paul Hicks recalls that in 1983 only 25 delegates were in attendance at the National Conference. This number has drastically increased over the years with 256 delegates being present at the 2013 National Conference making it the largest attendance number for The Association on record.
Today NAAUC exists as strong as ever, and continues to serve student leaders and residences across the country. The previous two years have been a difficult time for all, and NAAUC has been thrilled to emerge from the pandemic and rebuild connections in all corners of the country. As always, NAAUC, and residences, will continue to evolve in future.
