Digital & Print Media / Writing & editing / Writing about the University of Sydney / Abbreviations for other universities

Referring to other universities

When referring to other universities in lists of postnominals and so on, use the following conventions:

If you need the abbreviated form for another university, contact Digital and Print Media's information management officer.

Syd or Sydney?

In line with the above style, as of January 2009, the University of Sydney should be referred to in lists of postnominals as Sydney rather than Syd.

In the past, the practice had been to leave Sydney degrees unattributed, and to put external degrees in parentheses. Nowadays, however, a large proportion of the University's academics have a non-Sydney background so it is no longer appropriate to give primacy to Sydney degrees.

List of abbreviations for Australian universities

Note: This list uses the official names of universities. For example, the University of Sydney appears under "u" not "s".

 

University Abbreviation
Australian Catholic ACU National
Australian National University ANU
Central Queensland University CQU
Bond University Bond
Charles Darwin University CDU
Charles Sturt CSU
Curtin University of Technology Curtin
Deakin University Deakin
Edith Cowan University ECU
Flinders University Flinders
Griffith University Griffith
James Cook University JCU
La Trobe University La Trobe
Macquarie University Macquarie
Monash University Monash
Murdoch University Murdoch
Queensland University of Technology QUT
RMIT University RMIT
Southern Cross University SCU
Swinburne University of Technology Swinburne
University of Adelaide Adelaide
University of Ballarat UB
University of Canberra UC
University of Melbourne Melbourne
University of New England UNE
University of New South Wales UNSW
University of Newcastle UoN
University of Notre Dame Australia UNDA
University of Queensland UQ
University of South Australia UniSA
University of Southern Queensland USQ
University of Sydney Sydney
University of Tasmania UTAS
University of Technology Sydney UTS
University of the Sunshine Coast USC
University of Western Australia UWA
University of Western Sydney UWS
University of Wollongong UOW
Victoria University VU

These abbreviations taken from the list maintained by Universities Australia.

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List of abbreviations for the top 100 universities (excluding Australia)

Note: This list uses the official names of universities. For example, the University of Oxford appears under "u" not "o".

University Country Abbreviation
Boston University USA Boston
Brown University USA Brown
California Institute of Technology USA CalTech
Carnegie Mellon University USA Carnegie-Mellon
Case Western Reserve University USA Case W Reserve
Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Chinese HK
Columbia University USA Col
Cornell University USA Cornell
Dartmouth College USA Dartmouth
Delft University of Technology Netherlands Delft
Duke University USA Duke
Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris France Ec Normale Sup, Paris
Ecole Polytechnique France École Poly(Palaiseau) 
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland InstTechnol, Lausanne
Emory University USA Emory
ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Switzerland ETH Zurich
Free University of Berlin Germany FU Berlin
Georgia Institute of Technology USA Georgia
Harvard University USA Harv 
Heidelberg University Germany Heidel
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong HKUST
Imperial College London UK ImpLond
Johns Hopkins University USA Johns H
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium Leuven
King's College London UK Lond
Korea Advanced Inst of Science & Technology South Korea Korea AIST
Kyoto University Japan Kyoto
Leiden University Netherlands Ley
London School of Economics UK Lond
Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munchen (Munich) Germany Munich
Lund University Sweden Lund
Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA MIT
McGill University Canada McG
Nagoya University Japan Nagoya
Nanyang Technological University Singapore NanTech
National Taiwan University Tawian NTU
National University of Singapore Singapore NU Singapore
New York University USA NY
Northwestern University USA Northwestern
Osaka University Japan Osaka
Peking University China Peking
Princeton University USA Prin
Purdue University USA Purdue
Rice University USA Rice
Seoul National University South Korea Seoul
Stanford University USA Stan
Technical University of Munich Germany TH Munich
Tohoku University Japan Tohoku
Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan Tokyo IT
Trinity College Dublin Ireland Trinity(Dub) 
Tsinghua University China Tsinghua
University College Dublin Ireland Dublin
University College London UK Lond
University of Aarhus Denmark Aarhus
University of Alberta Canada Alta
University of Amsterdam Netherlands Amst
University of Auckland New Zealand Auck
University of Birmingham UK Birm
University of Bristol UK Brist
University of British Columbia Canada BrCol
University of California, Berkeley USA Calif
University of California, Los Angeles USA UCLA
University of California, San Diego USA San Diego
University of Cambridge UK Camb *  
University of Chicago USA Chic
University of Copenhagen Denmark Copenhagen
University of Edinburgh UK Edin
University of Geneva Switzerland Geneva
University of Glasgow UK Glas
University of Hong Kong Hong Kong HK
University of Illinois USA Ill
University of Leeds UK Leeds
University of Manchester UK Manc
University of Michigan USA Mich
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill USA

N.Carolina
University of Nottingham UK Nott
University of Oxford UK Oxf * 
University of Pennsylvania USA Penn
University of Sheffield UK Sheff
University of Southampton UK S'ton
University of St Andrews UK StAnd
University of Texas at Austin USA AustinColl
University of Tokyo Japan Tokyo
University of Toronto Canada Tor
University of Warwick UK Warw
University of Washington USA Wash
University of Wisconsin-Madison USA Wis
University of York UK York(UK) 
University of Zurich Switzerland

Zür
Uppsala University Sweden Uppsala
Utrecht University Netherlands Utrecht
Washington University in St Louis USA Wash(Mo) 
Yale University USA Yale

Note the University of Sydney uses the abbreviations 'Camb' and 'Oxf' for Cambridge and Oxford, rather than 'Cantab' and 'Oxon' (the abbreviations based on the Latinised names of those universities).

This style is based on March 2007 guidance from the University of Oxford that set out a new system of abbreviations, based on the English rather than Latinised names.

The general rule of the new Oxford system is to use the first syllable and the first letter of the second syllable of the English name. This Wikipedia article provides a more detailed history.

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