30 DAYS, 30 YEARS, 30 FACTS
Bond’s first cohort comprised 322 students. The first student to be offered a place was Matthew Wiseman, who completed a Bachelor of Commerce. He is now the General Manager of Stratco Western Australia.
In 1990, Bond celebrated its first graduation. Nine MBA graduates completed their degrees on May 13 that year. Coincidentally, 1990 is the most common birth year for Bond graduates.
The bells in the bell tower were cast at the Royal Eijsbouts Foundry in the Netherlands. The bells have the ability to play tunes in a major key rather than a minor key and were the first of their type to be hung in Australia.
Bondies have competed at every Olympics and Commonwealth Games since 1992. Andrew Baildon, Chris Fydler and Jon Sieben were the first, competing in the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.
Bond University’s first Blues Awards were held in 1993, with Blues awarded to swimmer Chris Fydler.
About 10,000 square metres of tiles were used for walkways on campus.
Don’s Tavern was named after the first Vice Chancellor, Professor Don Watts.
The Bond University Film and Television Awards (BUFTA) were launched in 1996, with the competition still continuing 23 years later.
Japanese architect Arata Isozaki was the visionary architect behind Bond University, and its iconic Arch. This year, Mr Isozaki was awarded architecture’s highest honour in the world.
The most common title held by graduates was “Director’’.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, you don’t usually need to wear a uniform for class – except this one. Mike Grenby arrived at Bond in 1999, with the famous toga speeches under the Arch becoming a rite of passage that year.
In the year 2000 enrolments reached 2000 for the first time. Bond now has about 4500 students enrolled.
Bond graduates were born in more than 170 countries and reside in over 140 countries around the world.
The most common male first name of Bond graduates was David, followed by Michael. For the ladies, Sarah was the most common name.
In a tribute to Alan Bond’s 1983 America’s Cup win, students re-enacted the race.
Bond was given approval to start its Medical program in November 2004 after impressing the Australian Medical Council through various accreditation phases. Hundreds of applications were received for only 72 places. Now more than 100 Medical students are enrolled each year.
Bond’s first medical students started studying in 2005, before the Health Sciences & Medicine Building was competed in 2006 and opened by then-prime minister John Howard.
Bond University students represented Australia in the 2006 Harvard World Model United Nations (World MUN) conference in Beijing.
In 2007, Bond University achieved the highest national ranking in the Good Universities Guide for the first time. It has retained this ranking since.
The Sustainable Development Building was opened in 2008. It was the first building in Australia to achieve a six Green Star – Education Pilot Certificate Rating for Design by the Green Building Council of Australia.
Adding to a long list of achievements on the national and international stages, in 2009 Bond University mooters defeated Yale University to win first place in the prestigious International Criminal Court (ICC) Trial Competition in The Hague in the Netherlands.
Up until 2010, the space that is now home to the Balnaves Foundation Multimedia Learning Centre was an art gallery.
The ADCO Amphitheatre was gifted to the University by ADCO Constructions. The first event to be held there was the first Live at Bond, on Sunday, July 31, 2011. The first act was Deborah Conway, accompanied by Willy Zygier.
The Bond Institute of Health and Sport is home base for some of the Health Sciences and Medicine students, including Physiotherapy, OT and Nutrition and Dietetic Practice.
After 22 months of construction, the Abedian School of Architecture opened its doors in 2013. It was an intricate construction process – there are no straight lines in the building!
In 2014 Bond celebrated its 25th anniversary, with 800 guests attending the Gala. And the 30th is set to be a bigger celebration, with almost 1000 guests at the sold-out Gala this year!
There were over 1000 pieces in Bond’s art collection.
Bond’s two visionary founders, Mr Alan Bond and Mr Harunori Takahashi, were immortalised in statues in 2016, when Founders’ Corner was established.
Bond University’s Transformer program launched in May 2017, as Australia’s first co-curricular program for entrepreneurship.
In September 2018, Bond University was ranked number one in Australia for student experience by the Good Universities Guide – for the 13th year in a row.
The names of 26,727 graduates are engraved on Bond’s 30th anniversary sculpture, unveiled last month.