University of Otago
The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university and the world's most southerly. It is the South Island's largest employer and claims to have the world's longest-established annual Capping Show and New Zealand's oldest ballet company.
The university was founded in 1869, and opened in July 1871. Its motto is "Sapere aude" ("Dare to be wise").
Until 1961 the University of Otago was affiliated with the University of New Zealand, and issued degrees in its name. However, as a full university in itself, it retained degree-granting powers, but chose not to exercise them. The dissolution of the University of New Zealand saw these degree-granting powers re-instated.
Some of its many diverse buildings appear in the following panorama:
180° view of Dunedin shot from the hills on the west.
(Enlarge!)
It began teaching medicine in 1875, and is one of the two medical schools in New Zealand.
Many Fellowships add to the diversity of the people associated with "Otago". They include:
- Burns Fellowship
- Caroline Plummer Fellowship in Community Dance
- Charles Hercus Fellowship
- Claude McCarthy Fellowship
- Foxley Fellowship
- Frances Hodgkins Fellowship
- Henry Lang Fellowship
- Hocken Fellowship
- James Cook Fellowship
- THB Symons Fellowship
- William Evans Visiting Fellowship
In 1998, the physics department gained some fame for making the first Bose-Einstein condensate in the southern hemisphere.
The 2004 Government investigation into research quality (to be used for future funding) put Otago in fourth place in New Zealand.
Colleges and halls
These Colleges and halls are not as significant in the academic life of the University compared with colleges of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
