The University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is an Australian public research university in Sydney. Founded in 1850, it is Australia's first university and is regarded as one of its most prestigious, ranked as the world's 27th most reputable university. In 2015, it was ranked 45th in the SQ World University Rankings. Additionally, Sydney graduates have been ranked the most employable in Australia and 14th most employable in the world, in the top 0.1%. Five Nobel and two Crawford laureates have been affiliated with the university as graduates and faculty. Its campus is ranked in the top 10 of the world's most beautiful universities by the British Daily Telegraph and The Huffing ton Post, spreading across the inner-city suburbs of Camper down and Darling ton.

The university comprises 16 faculties and schools, through which it offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. In 2011 it had 32,393 undergraduate and 16,627 graduate students.

Sydney University is a member of the prestigious Group of Eight, Academic Consortium 21, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APR U), the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning, the Australia-Africa Universities Network (FAUN), the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Worldwide Universities Network. The University is also colloquially known as one of Australia's sandstone universities.

History

The University of Sydney in the early 1870s, viewed from Parramatta Road. The Sydney University Regiment forming a guard of honor for the visiting Duke of York, 1927. In 1848, in the New South Wales Legislative Council, William Went worth, a graduate of the University of Cambridge and Charles Nicholson, a medical graduate from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, proposed a plan to expand the existing Sydney College into a larger university. Went worth 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 Went worth's behalf, however, before the plan was finally adopted.

The university was established via the passage of the University of Sydney Act, on 24 September 1850 and was assented on 1 October 1850 by Sir Charles Fitzroy.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 Woolly, the first professor of chemistry and experimental physics was John Smith. On 27 February 1858 the university received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, giving degrees conferred by the university rank and recognition equal to those given by universities in the United Kingdom. By 1859, the university had moved to its current site in the Sydney suburb of Camper down.

In 1858, the passage of the electoral act provided for the university to become a constituency for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as soon as there were 100 graduates of the university holding higher degrees eligible for candidacy. This seat in the Parliament of New South Wales was first filled in 1876, but was abolished in 1880 one year after its second member, Edmund Barton, who later became the first Prime Minister of Australia, 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 Montague Manning (Chancellor 1878–95) who argued against the claims by British Tax Commissioners. The following year seven professorships were created: anatomy; zoology; engineering; history; law; logic and mental philosophy; and modern literature.

1950–2000

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

During the late 1960s, the University of Sydney was at the center of rows to introduce courses on Marxism and feminism at the major Australian universities. At one stage, newspaper reporters descended on the university to cover brawls, demonstrations, secret memos and a walk-out by David Armstrong, a respected philosopher who held the Challis Chair of Philosophy from 1959 to 1991, after students at one of his lectures openly demanded a course on feminism.The philosophy department split over the issue to become the Traditional and Modern Philosophy Department, headed by Armstrong and following a more traditional approach to philosophy, and the General Philosophy Department, which follows the French continental approach.

Former Vice-Chancellor Gavin Brown (left) with wife Diane Rank and Brendan Coventry in 2009

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

Sydney Branch of the Sydney Conservatory of Music

Cumberland College of Health Sciences

Sydney College of the Arts of the Institute of the Arts

Sydney Institute of Education of the Sydney College of Advanced Education

Institute of Nursing Studies of the Sydney College of Advanced Education

Guild Center 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 Stuart University.

2000–present: Charles Perkins Center, University of Sydney :
In 2001, the University of Sydney chancellor, Dame Leonid Kramer, was forced to resign by the university's governing body. In 2003, Nick Greener, a former Premier of New South Wales, resigned from his position as chair 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 Greener, resigned in protest from the two positions she held at the university as chair 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 New South Wales and the Community and Public Sector Union were in dispute with the university over a proposal to privatize 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 Roman Catholic institution, in handing over the land St John's placed limitations on the type of medical research which could be conducted on the premises, seeking to preserve the essence of the college's mission. This caused concern among some groups, who argued that it would interfere with scientific medical research. However, this was rejected by the university's administration because the building was not intended for this purpose and there were many other facilities in close proximity where such research could take place.

At the start of 2010, the university controversially adopted a new logo. It retains the same university arms, however it takes on a more modern look. There have been stylistic changes, the main one being the coat of arm's mantling, the shape of the escutcheon (shield), the removal of the motto scroll, and also others more subtle within the arms itself, such as the mane and fur of the lion, the number of lines in the open book and the coloration. The original Coat of Arms from 1857 continues to be used for ceremonial and other formal purposes, such as on teamsters.

Action initiated by Spence to improve the financial sustainability of the university has alienated some students and staff. In 2012, Spence led efforts to cut the university's expenditure to address the financial impact of a slowdown in international student enrollments across Australia. This included redundancies of a number of university staff and faculty, though some at the university argued that the institution should cut back on building programs instead. Critics argue the push for savings has been driven by managerial incompetence and indifference, fueling industrial action during a round of enterprise bargaining in 2013 that also reflected widespread concerns about public funding for higher education.

An internal staff survey in 2012/13, which found widespread dissatisfaction with how the university is being managed. Asked to rate their level of agreement with a series of statements about the university, 19 per cent of those surveyed believed "change and innovation" were handled well by the university. In the survey, 75 per cent of university staff indicated senior executives were not listening to them, while only 22 per cent said change was handled well and 33 per cent said senior executives were good role models.

In the first week of semester, some staff passed a motion of no confidence in Spence because of concerns he was pushing staff to improve the budget while he received a performance bonus of $155,000 that took his total pay to $1 million, in the top 0.1 per cent of income earners in Australia. Fair fax media reports Spence and other Uni bosses have salary packages worth ten times more than staff salaries and double that of the Prime Minister.

Concerns about public funding for higher education were reflected again in 2014 following the federal government's proposal to deregulate student fees. The university held a wide-ranging consultation process, which included a "town hall meeting" at the university's Great Hall 25 August 2014, where an audience of students, staff and alumni expressed deep concern about the government's plans and called on university leadership to lobby against the proposals. Spence took a leading position among Australian vice-chancellors in repeatedly calling throughout 2014 for any change to funding to not undermine equitable access to university while arguing for fee deregulation to raise course costs for the majority of higher education students.

During Spence's term, the university has attracted scorn for allowing students from an elite private school, Scots College, to enter university via a "pathway of privilege" by means of enrolling in a Diploma of Tertiary Preparation rather than meeting HSC entry requirements. The university charged students $12,000 to take the course and have since admitted a number of students to degree courses. Exposed by Fair fax media, the scheme has been criticized by Phillip Heath, the national chairman of the Association of Heads of independent schools of Australia.

An investigation by Fair fax Media in 2015 revealed widespread cheating at universities across NSW, including the University of Sydney.The university established a task force on academic misconduct in April 2015 to maintain its leadership position in preventing incidences of cheating and academic misconduct.

Coat of arms: Argent on a Cross Azure and open book proper, clasps Gold, between four Stars of eight points Or, on a chief Giles a Lion pass ant Guard ant also Or, together with this motto "Sid ere mend edema mutate" to be borne and used forever hereafter by the said University of Sydney on their Common Seal, Shields or otherwise according to the Law of Arms. The use of eight-pointed stars was unusual for arms at the time, although they had been used unofficially as emblems for New South Wales since the 1820s and on the arms of the Church of England Diocese of Australia in 1836.

According to the university, the Latin motto Sid ere mend edema mutate can be translated to "Though the constellations change, the mind is unchanged". Author and university alumnus Clive James quipped in his 1981 autobiography that the motto loosely translates as "Sydney University is really Oxford or Cambridge laterally displaced approximately 12,000 miles."

Rankings:

University rankings

University of Sydney

QS World 37

THE-WUR World 56

ARWU World 101–150

USNWR World  45

Australian rankings

QS National 3

THE-WUR National  3

ARWU National 5–7

USNWR National 2

Statue of Went worth in the Great Hall

The Anderson Stuart Building, housing the Sydney Medical School

The Manacle Building housing the Manacle Museum, the oldest collection of natural history in Australia

The Madden Building, housing the School of Geo sciences, previously occupied by the CSIRO

The Institute Building

The 2014–15 SQ World University Rankings placed the University of Sydney 37th and in the top 0.3% overall in the world. Additionally, it ranked Sydney as the 27th most reputable university in the world. Sydney is one of only 12 universities in the world to receive a "5 Star Plus" rating by SQ based on criteria including "research, employ ability, teaching, facilities, internationalization, innovation, specialist criteria and inclusiveness".

The 2016 SQ Graduate Employ ability Rankings placed University of Sydney graduates 14th in the world, 1st in Australia, 2nd in the Asia Pacific region and in the top 0.1% in the world.[50]

The 2013 SQ World University Rankings by Subject placed Sydney in the top 20 in the world in 11 subjects; more than a third of the 30 measured. The University of Sydney was ranked 8th in the world for Education, 9th in Accounting and Finance and 10th in Law. Additionally, Sydney was placed 12th in English Language and Literature, History and Archaeology, Linguistics and Civil Engineering and Structural Engineering, the highest in Australia of those subjects. Psychology at Sydney was ranked 14th, Pharmacy and Pharmacology, and Communication and Media were ranked 16th, and the Sydney Medical School was ranked 17th.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-2016 placed the University of Sydney 56th, 9th in the Asia Pacific and in the top 0.6% in the world. Additionally, it was ranked in the top bracket for teaching and research. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013 placed Sydney 21st in Arts and Humanities, 25th in Clinical, Pr-clinical and Health, 36th in Social Sciences and 46th in Engineering and Technology. The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2013, placed Sydney as the 49th most reputable in the world.

In the 2014 Shanghai Ranking published by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, the University of Sydney was ranked in the 101–150th bracket and 7th in the Asia Pacific region.

In the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities 2015 by National Taiwan University, Sydney is ranked 36th in the world, 3rd in the Asia Pacific and 2nd in Australia.

In the 2013–14 "University Ranking for Academic Performance", the University of Sydney is ranked 39th in the world and 2nd in Australia.

The 2014 US News & World Report's Best Global Universities ranking placed Sydney 45th in the world, 5th in the Asia Pacific and 2nd in Australasia.

In 2014, the Center for World University Rankings ranked Sydney 95th, in the top 1% in the world and 1st in Australia.

The number of rich Sydney alumni was ranked fifth outside the United States, behind Oxford, Mumbai, Cambridge and LSE according to the ABC NEWS.

Business magazine Spear's placed the University of Sydney 44th in the world in its table of "World's top 100 universities for producing millionaires".

In 2012, The New York Times placed the University of Sydney's graduates at 49th in the world for employ ability, determined by surveys of thousands of top company recruiters.

In 2014, The Financial Times ranked the Sydney Business School's Master of Management program 47th in the world, 4th in the Asia Pacific and 1st in Australia.[64] Additionally, The Australian Financial Review ranked Sydney's Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) 1st in Australia.

Notable alumni:

Throughout its history, University of Sydney alumni have made significant contributions to both Australia and the world. Australian leaders who have graduated from the University include two governors-general, seven Australian prime ministers, the most of any university, including Australia's first, Sir Edmund Barton, four chief justices of the High Court of Australia, and twenty other justices of the High Court. Internationally, University of Sydney alumni include the third president of the United Nations General Assembly and a president of the International Court of Justice (in each case, the only Australians to date to hold such positions), and five Nobel laureates and two Crawford laureates. The University, being one of the first open to women throughout the world, produced graduate Jane Fosse Barf who was an advocate for women's education and a founder of the Women's College. According to ABC NEWS, the university produced more ultra high-net-worth alumni than any other Australian university and the number of rich Sydney alumni was ranked fifth outside the United States, behind Oxford, Mumbai, Cambridge and LSE.