Curtin was conferred university status after the Parliament of Western Australia passed legislation in 1986.

[23] In December 1986 WAIT was made a university, under provisions of the WA Institute of Technology Amendment Act 1986.

[citation needed] Curtin University's main campus is in Bentley, Western Australia, about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south-east of the Perth central business district.

In 2016, Curtin entered into an agreement with the National Trust of Australia (WA) to use the restored Old Perth Boys' School at 139 St Georges Terrace for community and industry engagement.

In 2018, Curtin renovated the original Perth Technical College building at 137 St Georges Terrace to create meeting rooms and learning spaces for professional development and postgraduate courses.

[31] Exploration Geophysics and Petroleum Engineering are at the co-location research facilities of the Australian Resources Research Centre (ARRC),[32] which also houses offices of CSIRO Earth Science and Resource Engineering[33] and National Measurement Institute.

Some university staff, researchers and students on practicum work in other locations, such as the Oral Health Centre of WA (OHCWA) in Nedlands[35] and at Royal Perth Hospital, amongst other organisations.

[citation needed] Curtin has campuses outside Perth, the largest being the Western Australian School of Mines at Kalgoorlie, and a number of micro-campuses in Esperance, Margaret River, Geraldton, and elsewhere.

[36] The Hall's name derives from George Hayman,[a] who played a major part in establishing WAIT in 1967.

[39] Curtin University Dubai courses use the same structure and unit curriculum as those at the Bentley campus.

[citation needed] The academic qualifications Curtin grants are certified by KHDA and recognised in the Emirate of Dubai by all public and private entities.

Curtin Sydney's operation was contracted out to private tertiary education provider Navitas Group.

[15] From 2007, the university's teaching and research was divided into five faculties (previously known as divisions), which each include a number of schools.

[50] Also on the Bentley campus is the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, holding a large collection of papers relating to John Curtin as well as other special collections, including the papers of political figures John Dawkins, Geoff Gallop, Hazel Hawke, and Carmen Lawrence, and Curtin academics Mike Daube (tobacco control) and Jules Black (sexology).

[54] Curtin's Creative Writing staff and alumni have won the Miles Franklin Award seven times.

[75] The Australian Government's QILT[c] conducts national surveys documenting the student life cycle from enrolment through to employment.

[76] These surveys place more emphasis on criteria such as student experience, graduate outcomes and employer satisfaction[76] than perceived reputation, research output and citation counts.

Other commercial services include G-Mart, Curtin University's general store, printing, stationery and news outlet and The Tav.

[83] Major Groups that contest elections include Illuminate, consisting of broadly left-wing Independent students; Left Action, aligned with Socialist Alternative; groups aligned with the Labor Right; and Joke Ticket's, from various political leanings.

[92] Notable people who have attended Curtin University include: Curtin's faculty includes prominent scholars such as environmental scientist Peter Newman, writer Kim Scott and isotope geochemist Kliti Grice.

Past prominent faculty members include the postmodernist Niall Lucy, writer Elizabeth Jolley and journalist Robert Duffield.

[104] Curtin has become active in research and partnerships overseas, particularly in mainland China, and has received funding from major Chinese companies, such as Tencent.

[105] It is involved in a number of business, management, and research projects, particularly in supercomputing, where the university participates in a tri-continental array with nodes in Perth, Beijing, and Edinburgh.

[107] Funding from major Chinese companies connected to the state have led to concerns that Curtin University has limited academic freedom on certain topics.