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University of Sydney

The University of Sydney (informally Sydney Uni or USyd) is the oldest university in Australia. It was established in Sydney in 1850. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" Australian universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance. In 2007, the University had 45,182 students and 3,018 (full-time equivalent) academic staff making it the second largest in Australia.

The University of Sydney has been ranked amongst the top 40 universities in the world by various sources. The UK’s Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings published in October 2006 ranked the University fifth best in the world for the Arts and Humanities, nineteenth for the social sciences and twentieth for biomedicine. The University as a whole was ranked 35th in the world in that same publication's league table, ranking third among Australian universities. In the Newsweek global 100 for 2006, the University of Sydney (together with the Australian National University) was one of two Australian universities placed in the top 50 in the world.

In the most recent THES worldwide rankings of universities released in November 2007, the University was ranked 31st overall (up four places from 2006), maintaining its position as the third highest ranked Australian university behind ANU (16th) and the University of Melbourne (27th).

Centred on the Oxbridge-inspired grounds of the University's Main Campus on the south-western outskirts of Sydney's CBD, the University has a number of campuses as a result of mergers over the past 20 years. The University of Sydney is a member of the Group of Eight, Academic Consortium 21, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) and the Worldwide Universities Network.

History

During 1848, William Wentworth proposed a plan to expand the existing Sydney College into a university in the Legislative Council. Wentworth argued that a state university was imperative for the growth of a society aspiring towards self-government, and that it would provide the opportunity for 'the child of every class, to become great and useful in the destinies of his country'. It would take two attempts on Wentworth's behalf however, before the plan was finally adopted.

The University was established via the passage of the University of Sydney Act which was signed on 1 October 1850. Two years later, the University was inaugurated on 11 October 1852 in the Big Schoolroom of what is now Sydney Grammar School. The first principal was John Woolley. On 27 February 1858 the University received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, giving degrees conferred by the University equal rank and recognition as those given by universities in the UK . By 1859, the university had moved to its current site in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown.

In 1858, the passage of the Electoral Act provided for the university to become a constituency for the Legislative Assembly as soon as there were 100 graduates with higher degrees. This seat in Parliament was first filled in 1876, but was abolished in 1880 one year after its second Member, Edmund Barton, was elected to the Legislative Assembly.

Most of the estate of John Henry Challis was bequeathed to the university, which received a sum of £200,000 in 1889. This was thanks in part due to William Montagu Manning (chancellor 1878–1895) who argued against the claims by British Tax Commissioners. The following year seven professorships were created; anatomy, zoology, engineering, history, law, logic & mental philosophy, and modern literature.

Under the terms of the Higher Education (Amalgamation) Act 1989 (NSW) the following bodies were incorporated into the University in 1990:

the Sydney Branch of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music
the Cumberland College of Health Sciences
the Sydney College of the Arts of the Institute of the Arts
the Sydney Institute of Education of the Sydney College of Advanced Education
the Institute of Nursing Studies of the Sydney College of Advanced Education
the Guild Centre of the Sydney College of Advanced Education.

Prior to 1981, the Sydney Institute of Education was the Sydney Teachers College.

The Orange Agricultural College (OAC) was originally transferred to the University of New England under the Act, but then transferred to the University of Sydney in 1994, as part of the reforms to the University of New England undertaken by the University of New England Act 1993 and the Southern Cross University Act 1993 In January 2005, the University of Sydney transferred the OAC to Charles Sturt University.

The New England University College was founded as part of the University of Sydney in 1938, and separated to become the University of New England in 1954.

In 2001, University of Sydney Chancellor Dame Leonie Kramer was forced to resign by the University’s governing body. In 2003, Nick Greiner, a former Premier of NSW, resigned from his position as Chairman of the University's Graduate School of Management because of academic protests against his simultaneous chairmanship of British American Tobacco (Australia). Subsequently, his wife, Kathryn Greiner, resigned in protest from the two positions she held at the University as Chairwoman of the Sydney Peace Foundation and a member of the executive council of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific. In 2005, the Public Service Association of NSW and the Community and Public Sector Union were in dispute with the University over a proposal to privatise security at the main campus (and the Cumberland campus.)

In February 2007, the University agreed to acquire a portion of the land granted to St John's College to develop the Sydney Institute of Health and Medical Research. As a Catholic institution, in handing over the land St John's placed limitations on the type of medical research that can be conducted on the premises seeking to preserve the essence of the College mission. This has caused concern among the some groups who argue this could interfere with scientific medical research. However this is rejected by the university administration because the building is not intended for this purpose and there are many other facilities in close proximity where such research can take place.

Organisation

The University comprises sixteen faculties:

The four largest faculties by (2007) student enrollments are (in descending order): Economics and Business; Arts; Health Sciences; Science. Together they comprise 57% of the University's students. Each contains a student enrollment over 5,000, and they are indeed the only such faculties.

Research

Latest figures show that the University of Sydney has been confirmed as Australia’s leading research university in terms of funding. Sydney researchers have been awarded more than $49 million by the Australian Research Council for 120 research projects commencing in 2007, the largest amount awarded to any university in Australia. Of that total, Sydney has received $40.5 million for 97 new Discovery Grants commencing in 2007, $5.4 million more than its nearest national competitor.

The University of Sydney secured more than $46 million in funding in the 2007 round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grant, Capacity Building and Fellowship awards, the largest allocation to any university in the state. The James Jones foundation has announced the 2007 recipient of the bicentennial award in university research linked to applied agricultural economics. The award includes various grant and research opportunities that may be taken up by both staff members and senior students. Five of the University's affiliated medical research facilities secured $38 million in the Australian government’s 2006 budget, part of $163 million made available for a variety of development and expansion projects.

Campus

Main campus

The main campus of the University is spread across two inner-city suburbs of Sydney: Camperdown and Darlington.

Originally housed in what is now Sydney Grammar School, in 1855, the government granted the university land in Grose Farm, three kilometres from the city, which is now the main Camperdown campus. The architect Edmund Blacket designed the original Neogothic sandstone Quadrangle and Great Tower buildings, which were completed in 1862. The rapid expansion of the university in the mid-20th century resulted in the acquisition of land in Darlington across City Road. The Camperdown/Darlington campus houses the headquarters of the University, and the Faculties of Arts, Science, Education and Social Work, Pharmacy, Veterinary Science, Economics and Business, Architecture, and Engineering. It is also the home base of the large Faculty of Medicine, which has numerous affiliated teaching hospitals across the State.

The main campus is also the focus of the university's student life, with the student-run University of Sydney Union (often known simply as the Union) in possession of three buildings on-site - Wentworth, Manning and Holme Buildings. These buildings house a large proportion of the university's catering outlets, and provide space for gaming rooms, bars and function centres. One of the largest activities organised by the Union is the Orientation Week (or 'O-week'), centering on stalls set up by clubs and societies on the Front Lawns.

The University is currently undertaking a large capital works program (entitled "Campus 2010 + Building for the Future"), with the aim of revitalising the campus and providing more office, teaching and student space. The program will see the amalgamation of the smaller science and technical libraries into a larger library, and the construction of a central administration and student services building along City Road. A new building for the School of Information Technologies opened in late 2006, and has been located on a site adjacent to the Seymour Centre. The busy Eastern Avenue thoroughfare has been transformed into a pedestrian plaza, and a new footbridge has been built over City Road. Meanwhile, a new home for the Sydney Law School is under construction, located alongside Fisher Library on the site of the old Edgeworth David and Stephen Roberts buildings.

From 2007, the University will also use Bay 17 in the new Carriageworks development in the former Eveleigh railway yards just to the south of Darlington as an examination room.

The campus is well-served by public transport, being a short walk from Redfern Railway Station, and served by buses on the neighbouring Parramatta Road and City Road.

Satellite campuses

Mallett Street campus: The Mallett Street campus is home of the Faculty of Nursing. As of 2005, the Faculty no longer offers undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing programs. A new Master of Nursing program (M.N) has been introduced, with its first intake of students in 2006. Other hybrid programs such as the Bachelor of Arts/Master of Nursing, Bachelor of Science/Master of Nursing, Bachelor of Applied Science/Master of Nursing, Bachelor of Sports and Exercise Science/Master of Nursing have also been introduced.

Cumberland campus: Formerly an independent institution (the Cumberland College of Health Sciences), the Cumberland campus in the Sydney suburb of Lidcombe was incorporated into the University as part of the higher education reforms of the late 1980s. It is home to the Faculty of Health Sciences, which covers various allied health disciplines, including physiotherapy, speech pathology, radiation therapy, occupational therapy, as well as exercise science and health information management.

The Sydney Dental Hospital located in Surry Hills and the Westmead Centre for Oral Health which is attached to Westmead Hospital. See: Sydney Faculty of Dentistry.

Phillip Street Campus: The Sydney Law School has been located in Sydney's CBD for the last 150 years, but is set to move to the main campus in 2009. The Phillips Street Campus will be used as research facilities.

Rozelle Campus: The Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) is based in a former sanitorium in the Sydney suburb of Rozelle, overlooking Sydney Harbour. The college specialises in the fine (visual) arts.

Sydney Conservatorium of Music: Formerly the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM) is located in the Sydney CBD on the edge of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, a short distance from the Sydney Opera House. It became a faculty of the University in the 1990s, and as of 2005 incorporates the main campus Department of Music, which was the subject of the documentary Facing the Music.

Orange Agricultural College: Located at Orange in rural NSW, the Orange Agricultural College joined in 1994. Orange campus was principally the domain of the former Faculty of Rural Management; however other undergraduate courses from the Faculties of Arts, Science, Nursing and Pharmacy were also taught at Orange. The Orange Campus and the Faculty of Rural Management were transferred to Charles Sturt University in 2005.

Camden campus: Located on Sydney's southwest rural fringe, the Camden campus houses research farms for agriculture and veterinary science.

The Narrabri Plant Research Centre is located at Narrabri, near the Queensland border.

Taylors College Located at Waterloo NSW ,This college is for The Sydney University Foundation Program

Facilities and services

University of Sydney Library

The University of Sydney Library consists of numerous individual libraries across its many campuses. Fisher Library was named after an early benefactor. The University library is the largest in the southern hemisphere, with a collection of more than 5.25 million items. It possesses many rare items such as one of the two extant copies of the Gospel of Barnabas, and a first edition of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton.

Museums and galleries

Nicholson Museum of Antiquities contains the largest and most prestigious collection of antiquities in Australia. It is also the country's oldest university museum, and features ancient artefacts from Egypt, the Middle East, Greece, Rome, Cyprus and Mesopotamia, collected by the University over many years and added to by recent archaeological expeditions.

The Macleay Museum is named after Alexander Macleay, whose collection of insects begun in the late eighteenth century was the basis upon which the museum was founded. It has developed into an extraordinary collection of natural history specimens, ethnographic artifacts, scientific instruments and historic photographs.

The University Art Collection was founded in the 1860s and contains more than 2,500 pieces, constantly growing through donation, bequests, and acquisition. It is housed in several different places, including the Sir Hermann Black Gallery and the War Memorial Art Gallery.

The Rare Books Library is a part of the Fisher Library and holds 185,000 books and manuscripts which are rare, valuable or fragile, including eighty medieval manuscripts, works by Galileo, Halley and Copernicus and an extensive collection of Australiana. The copy of the Gospel of Barnabas, and a first edition of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton are held here. Regular exhibitions of rare books are held in the exhibition room.

Residential colleges

The university has a number of residential college and halls of residence each with its own distinctive style and facilities. All offer tutorial support and a wide range of social and sporting activities in a supportive communal environment. Five colleges are affiliated with religious denominations and while this gives each of these colleges a special character, students of any denomination or religion are eligible for admission. Unlike some residential colleges in British or American universities, the colleges are not affiliated with any specific discipline of study.

There is also a university-affiliated housing cooperative, Stucco.

Student organisations

Student Representatives: Politically and academically, undergraduate students are represented by the Students Representative Council (SRC) and postgraduate students by the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA)

University of Sydney Union: The University of Sydney Union (USU) is the oldest and largest university union in Australia. USU provides a range of activities, programs, services and facilities geared at giving students the university experience. This involves delivering a huge Clubs and Societies program, a varied entertainment program, student opportunities, a range of catering and retail services plus buildings and recreational spaces for the University community and its students, staff and visitors.

Sydney University Sport: Formerly known as the Sydney University Sports Union and Sydney University Women's Sports Association, Sydney University Sport is one of Australia's largest tertiary sporting bodies. It currently manages and administers 42 sport and recreation clubs, organises sporting and recreation events, and offers student and non-student members a comprehensive range of sporting facilities.

The future of these organisations is under a shadow with the passage of legislation implementing voluntary student unionism in late 2005. Such legislation prohibits the compulsory collection of fees from students who enrolled for the first time in the second semester of 2006 and all students from the beginning of 2007.

Miscellaneous

Statistics

Gallery

References

Internet:

Literary:

Williams, Bruce. Liberal education and useful knowledge: a brief history of the University of Sydney, 1850–2000, Chancellor's Committee, University of Sydney, 2002. ISBN 1-86487-439-2