Expansion and restructuring
In 1990, the biggest building project on campus since the mid-1970s saw work commence on three new buildings – Law and Commerce; Engineering; and Information Science and Technology. Approval for the establishment of a School of Engineering was given in 1991 and degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering were established shortly afterwards.
In 1991, as part of a restructuring of higher education in South Australia, Flinders merged with the adjacent Sturt Campus of the former South Australian College of Advanced Education.
In 1992, a four-faculty structure was adopted.
In 1998, the Centre for Remote Health, a rural teaching hospital based in Alice Springs, was established jointly with the Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University). This was expanded further in 2011 with the establishment of the Northern Territory Medical Program.
Since 2000, the university has established new disciplines in areas including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and more disciplines in engineering.
In 2011, the bacteria genus Flindersiella was named after the university after the strain was found on a tree on campus grounds.
In 2015, the university opened a new campus at Tonsley, the former site of the Mitsubishi Motors Australia plant in Southern Adelaide. This campus houses the university's School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics, along with the Medical Device Research Institute, the Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology (now known as the Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology) and Flinders technology start-up company Re-Timer.
In 2016, the university celebrated its 50th anniversary with a calendar of public events, and a publication summarising the highlights of the university's history, research and alumni achievements over the last 50 years. The year also saw the opening of the award-winning student hub and plaza, transforming the central campus.
The university's strategic plan, Making a Difference - The 2025 Agenda, released in 2016 set an ambitious vision for the coming decade for Flinders to reach the top ten of Australian universities, and the top one per cent in the world.
On 1 July 2017, the university restructured from a two-tier academic system of four faculties and fourteen schools, to a single-tier structure consisting of six colleges.
In 2019, the university announced an additional $100 million investment in research and a further $100 million in education over a five-year period to support it to meet its strategic goals.
The university also in 2019 announced plans for a substantial development on a tract on land on the northern portion of the Bedford Park Campus adjacent to the Flinders hospitals precinct. Known as "Flinders Village" the decade-long development will deliver research facilities, student accommodation, commercial premises and amenities. The catalyst for the initiative was the extension of the Clovelly Park rail line to the Flinders precinct. The $141m rail line and Flinders Station project began operation in December 2020. Stage one of the Flinders Village development is the construction of a health and medical research building. Construction began in December 2021 and the building, which will be home to the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, was scheduled for completion in 2024.
In 2021, the university announced that it would be expanding its Adelaide CBD presence, establishing a vertical campus as the anchor tenant in Festival Tower, a major development scheduled for completion in 2024 adjacent to Parliament House and the Adelaide Railway Station on North Terrace.
In 2022, the newly elected state Labor government led by Peter Malinauskas proposed setting up a commission to investigate the possibility of a merger of South Australia's three public universities: the University of South Australia (UniSA), the University of Adelaide, and Flinders University. The University of Adelaide and UniSA decided to merge, while Flinders remained independent. This made it the oldest extant South Australian university, when the two other universities merged to become Adelaide University.
