The University of New England was the first Australian university established outside a capital city. With a history extending back to the 1950s, UNE has a well-earned reputation as one of Australia's great teaching, training and research universities.

The majority of first-year, on-campus students choose to live in on campus residences, within easy walking distance of lectures and tutorials. In addition to providing food and lodgings, the colleges offer organised social activities as well as academic and pastoral support networks. The University prides itself that students from more than 50 nations study on-campus, providing a cosmopolitan atmosphere. The campus is well equipped with its own child-care, medical facilities, a post office, credit union, shops and restaurant, as well as the full range of sporting facilities. A regular bus service links the campus to town. Increasingly, the flexibility offered by external study is proving a significant attraction to those pursuing a tertiary education. UNE provides web-based facilities that allow students to send questions, submit assignments, order library books, check your grades and access other resources, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

All students at UNE are provided with internet access and email accounts. With more than 12,500 of its 17,000 students studying via the Internet, UNE is at the forefront of online learning, with 600 subjects accessible online.

Since 1955, teaching off-campus students by distance education has been an important part of the University's activities. University of New England (UNE)is now Australia 's longest continuous provider of distance education and with more than 15,000 external students, and is still one of Australia 's major providers of awards to off-campus students.

UNE has a long history of teaching in this mode and so is familiar with the problems and needs of off-campus students and provides extensive support systems to overcome those challenge of learning at a distance.