Since 1998, the University of Queensland has participated in a project with other Australian university libraries to build a distributed digital archive of Australian research higher degree theses (Master of Philosophy, Doctor of Philosophy and professional doctorate theses). The University of Queensland was one of the seven foundation institutions in what is now called the Australian Digital Theses Program.

Under the Program, participating institutions publish digital versions of theses into local Australian Digital Theses Program archives. Metadata is regularly harvested from the records in these archives to progressively build a searchable central database of Australian higher degree theses.

The goal of the Program is to maximize the visibility of students' research, and of the postgraduate research output of Australian universities, by making full-text theses available as widely as possible via the World Wide Web. The Program is managed by the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) and is supported by the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) and the Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies group (DDOGS).