On 20 April 1970, after a decade under the stewardship of the University of Queensland, James Cook University became a university in its own right. James Cook University (JCU) is Australia’s leading university for the Tropics. The University has encouraged and supported world-class research and exploration to meet the challenges facing the tropical regions of the world. Offering excellence in teaching and research, JCU is a vibrant university operating across two countries and four campuses in the North Queensland cities of Townsville, Cairns and Brisbane, and the city-state of Singapore.

James Cook University offers students a full range of courses from Foundation to PhD level. The courses are accredited by authorities in different professional fields. Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) rated 83% of JCU’s research fields as world-class or above. JCU received the highest possible rating, well above world standard, in the research areas of ecological applications, ecology, environmental science and management, fisheries sciences, geology, medical microbiology, organic chemistry and plant biology. Every field of research in medical and health sciences was rated world-class or above. James Cook University in Singapore’s business accreditation by AACSB International is an honour that represents excellence in business education. Less than 6 percent of the world's schools offering business degree programmes hold the prestigious AACSB business accreditation. Research centres in Singapore campus such as the Tropical Future Institute and the Centre for International Trade and Business in Asia provideworld-class research and also disseminate advanced knowledge concepts.

James Cook University Singapore Campus is a direct campus of James Cook University in Australia, ranked in the top 2% of the world university rankings.Australia's James Cook University established a campus in Singapore in 2003, an important milestone in the university's internationalization. The Singapore campus offers courses in business management, business studies, economics, information technology, cyber security, data science, Internet of Things and psychology. In addition, the academic degree issued by the Singapore campus is exactly the same as that of the Australian campus, which is recognized by the Chinese Ministry of Education, and students can obtain the certification of the academic degree by the China (Ministry of Education) Service Center after successful completion of their studies.