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| University of Sydney | |
| Motto | Sidere mens eadem mutato "The stars change, [but] the mind [remains] the same" |
| Established | 1850 |
| Chancellor | Justice Kim Santow |
| Vice-Chancellor | Professor Gavin Brown |
| Location | Sydney NSW, Australia |
| Students | 47,296 total (2004) |
| Member of | Group of Eight, APRU |
| Homepage | http://www.usyd.edu.au |
The University of Sydney, established in 1850, is the oldest university in Australia, and it is located in Sydney, the capital city of the state of New South Wales. It is one of Australia's "Group of Eight" leading universities and remains one of the country's largest educational institutions. In 2004, the University of Sydney reported an enrolment of 47,296 students and employed 2,451 academics.
Centred on the Oxbridge-inspired grounds of the University's Main Campus on the southern outskirts of the City of Sydney CBD, the University of Sydney now possesses a number of campuses as a result of mergers in recent years.
The motto of the University of Sydney is Sidere mens eadem mutato (the stars change, but the mind is constant), reflecting its status as the first university in Australia and its being modelled after the British University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. It also ostensibly reflects the early goal of matching those English institutions in prestige and quality of education.
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The University has a number of campuses and is has continued to expand over the years. Until recently, the University also operated the Museum of Contemporary Art.
As of 2004, the campuses are:
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 great 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 student life at campus, with the student-run University of Sydney Union (also known simply as the Union) in possession of three buildings on-site - Wentworth, Manning and Holme Buildings. These buildings house the large proportion of the university's catering outlets, and provide space for game rooms, bars and function centres. One of the more prominent 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, which 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.
Click here to view a map of the Main Campus (http://www.usyd.edu.au/fstudent/careers/study/pub/eco2004_98_map.pdf)
The Mallett Street campus is home of the Faculty of Nursing. The University administration has recently proposed a "change management plan" such that, starting from 2005, there will be no further admissions into undergraduate nursing courses.
The students from the Faculty of Nursing, along with the Students Representative Council, have vocally opposed the proposal to close undergraduate nursing and have held several protests against the proposal which would, effectively, see the closure of the Faculty of Nursing.
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 Science, which covers various allied health disciplines, including physiotherapy, speech therapy, radiation therapy, occupational therapy, etc.
Near St. James Railway Station in the centre of Sydney, this is located across the road from the New South Wales Supreme Court. In 2007, it is expected that the Faculty of Law will move to the main campus following the construction of the new law building in the vicinty of Fisher Library.
Main article: Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
The Conservatorium of Music is located near Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens a short distance from the Sydney Opera House; it was acquired by the University in the 1990s. It is not to be confused with the University of Sydney's main campus Department of Music, which was the subject of a notable documentary called Facing the Music.
Located at Orange in rural NSW, the Orange Agricultural College joined in 1994. Orange campus is principally the domain of the Faculty of Rural Management - however other undergraduate courses from the Faculties of Arts, Science, Nursing and Pharmacy are also taught at Orange.
The university administration has recently proposed a "change management plan" to sell Orange Campus and the Faculty of Rural Management to Charles Sturt University. Staff, in particular, have objected to this proposal and have campaigned to stop this transfer of ownership.
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.
Under the terms of the Higher Education (Amalgamation) Act 1989, the following bodies were incorporated into the University of Sydney in 1990:
The Orange Agricultural College 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.
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.
Main article: University of Sydney Library.
The University of Sydney Library consists of numerous individual libraries with the main building, Fisher Library, named after an early benefactor. The University library is the largest in the southern hemisphere, with a collection of over 5.1 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 which are part of the university include the Nicholson Museum of Antiquities and the Macleay Museum.
The University of Sydney boasts a large number of alumni, some quite famous and influential, who have gone on to make significant contributions in their fields of endeavour. These include:
At present the leaders of Australia's four largest political parties are all Sydney alumni:
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