University campuses are now a fixture of practically every major city in Australia but often go under-appreciated as built environments. This collaborative history sheds light on the origins and evolution of campus design from the Second World War to the current day. It explores built legacies and design strategies set against the backdrop of the development of higher education in Australia's continuing cultural evolution.

Times change but what remains is the importance of the design, landscape and buildings of university campuses in shaping and supporting the quality of life and work of the university community. Campuses profoundly shape the immediate experiences, as well as the memories of significant times, in the lives of those who pass through them. They are substantial new manifestations of urban civic life.

The essays on modern Australian universities presented in Campus are deep and wide, setting their features in the socio-economic, political and urban context in which they have developed. This is a particularly rich collection from which to reflect on the particularities and commonalities of the Australian university campus.