The City Art Institute seceded from Sydney CAE in 1987 and joined the Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) to create the NSW Institute of the Arts. The two institutions remained at their original locations in Paddington and Balmain but the partnership was short-lived. In 1988 Federal legislation removed the distinction between state-owned Colleges of Advanced Education and federally funded universities, resulting in the amalgamation of most CAEs with existing universities. The devolution of NSW Institute of the Arts was included in these changes, made effective on 1 January 1990, when Sydney College of the Arts joined the University of Sydney and the City Art Institute, renamed the College of Fine Arts (COFA), became a faculty of The University of New South Wales.