The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sydney is the oldest and one of the most comprehensive of its kind in Australia. The Faculty remains proud of its past while focused on the future. The Faculty’s distinctiveness lies in the depth and breadth of its disciplines, with its many research and teaching strengths earning it a deserved reputation for excellence nationally and internationally.
The Faculty’s research is driven by the pursuit of multidisciplinary knowledge that benefits Australia and the wider world. In 2025 we welcomed two new flagship centres, the Centre for AI, Trust and Governance, which advances responsible AI development through multidisciplinary research, fosters public trust, and informs policy decisions in complex regulatory environments; and the Contemporary Inequalities Centre, which brings together multidisciplinary expertise to pursue collaborative, problem-driven research, aiming to respond to emerging social and economic challenges to build the evidence base needed to shape new policy responses.
Our other flagship research centres include the Vere Gordon Childe Centre, and the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies. Other research centres, institutes, and groups in the Faculty include the Sydney Institute for Community Languages Education, the CREATE Centre, and the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC).
For our students, and in collaboration with our partners, the Faculty offers internships and work placements, overseas exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration around complex, real-world problems. As we mature our connections with industry, community and government, the Faculty is seeking to establish anchoring partnerships operating across its research and education portfolios.