List of universities in Australia

There are 42 universities in Australia out of which 38 are public universities and 4 are private universities. The Commonwealth Higher Education Support Act 2003 sets out three groups of Australian higher education providers: universities, other self-accrediting higher education institutions and state and territory accredited higher education institutions.

For admissions to universities, those students who have completed Australian state curricula are granted a state-specific Australian Tertiary Admission Rank. All Australian universities use the ATAR based "selection rank" as one of their methods of admission; universities also use past study, work experience and other considerations in granting admission. The ATAR provides an indication of the overall position of the student in relation to the student body for that year across the state. The ATAR is used by state-specific centralised admission centres for admission into university. Following bodies allocate ATAR based selection ranks and admission for the tertiary institutions in their respective states:
 * Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, with a separate website for Tasmania
 * South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre (SATAC) in South Australia and the Northern Territory
 * Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) in Victoria
 * Tertiary Institutions Service Centre (TISC) in Western Australia
 * Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) in Queensland

For International Baccalaureate (IB) Australian students (Australian citizens) as well as the international students in Australia, the "Australasian Conference of Tertiary Admission Centres" (ACTAC) calculates an Australia-wide ATAR-like national rank called "Combined rank which combines results from across all states, thus enabling IB students to "apply in any Australian state or territory with confidence about how their results compare to their peers who have completed state curricula and received an ATAR", also "when completing your final year of schooling, ensure that you provide permission via your school for your IB results to be released to Australian tertiary admissions centres. As long as you identify yourself as an IB student and provide your IB candidate number when applying for courses, your IB scores and subject results will be received electronically and automatically converted for the purposes of selection and meeting prerequisites."

Universities in Australia
In addition to the following universities, the Australian campus of Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz III College operated in the city of Adelaide in South Australia between 2006 and 2022. University College London also operated an Australian campus in Adelaide between 2009 and 2017. The newest Australian institution to receive university status is Avondale University in 2021.

National university groups

 * Australian-European Network – a network of 5 Australian universities who cooperate with 31 European universities on student exchange programs.
 * Australian Technology Network – technology-focused Australian universities that mostly originated as institutes of technology.
 * Group of Eight – research intensive high-ranking Australian universities, similar to Russell Group in the United Kingdom.
 * Innovative Research Universities – a coalition of Australian universities with focus on higher education advocacy and research.
 * Red Brick Universities – the University of New South Wales, Monash University and the Australian National University
 * Regional Universities Network – a group of regional, distance education and multi-campus university networks.
 * Open Universities Australia – a group of universities that offer distance education courses as part of a common platform.
 * Sandstone Universities – an informal group of the oldest universities in each Australian state with colonial-era sandstone buildings.
 * Verdant universities – an informal group of Australian universities founded in the 1960s and 70s, often with nature reserves or vegetation
 * NUW Alliance – the University of Newcastle, the University of New South Wales and the University of Wollongong