Darling Heights is a residential suburb of Toowoomba, and is generally five km south-west of the CBD. It is separated from the old settlement of Drayton by the railway line from Toowoomba to Warwick and by Luck Street.

In the 1960s the then largely undeveloped area was chosen as the site for the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, and named 'College Heights', although the name was changed in 1966, a year before the Institute's opening. In 1980 a local State primary school was opened. Residential development - a mixture of detached houses, duplexes and low-rise units - began around the primary school (to the north of the Institute) and spread westward during the 1990s. In 1992 the Institute became the University of Southern Queensland. The area to the south has largely remained rural/residential.

With an additional campus at Hervey Bay, in 2002 the University had five faculties, over 27,000 full and part-time students, nearly 5600 International students and over 16,600 distance education students.

The census population of Darling Heights in 2006 was 5035.