Abstract
In this chapter the history of the founding of Australian universities is explored. It looks at the key influences for such foundations, which overseas universities were seen as models and who were the key people involved. This began with the founding of the University of Sydney in 1850. Subsequently universities were founded in each colony, and in the case of Western Australia, in that state, after Federation. Given the diversity of the then colonies, later states, the distinctive influences and decisions about the need for each university are explored. The beginnings of languages teaching in each university is discussed as is the priorities for particular languages. The analysis also reveals that the quality and continuity of languages teaching in some institutions suffered due to staffing issues and financial constraints.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Turney, Bygott, and Chippendale are the authors of A History of the University of Sydney Volume 1.
- 2.
British universities had the denominational college structure and the Church of England, as the Established Church and training of its clergy, at their heart.
- 3.
State Library and National Museum of Victoria founded in 1854 and the National Gallery of Victoria founded in 1861.
- 4.
The first residential college, Trinity College, was not established until 1872.
- 5.
According to the South Australian Register of Friday 1 August 1879, the Union College Council had been given the Hughes money and relinquished it to the University movement, believing that, through the University movement, the money would have greater benefit for the public than using the money for theological education.
- 6.
Turney et al. (1991. p. 4), disagreed with Woolley, saying universities had already been developed in British North America. However, the first universities in British North America were private universities. The University of Sydney was indeed the first colonial public university of the British Empire.
- 7.
Pearson believed that Spanish and Italian were commercially important for the colony as trade was developing with new countries. However, Spanish and Italian were not taught until the 1920s and then only in the instructor mode.
- 8.
The term ‘reader’ was generally used to denote a paid academic position ranked above senior lecturer but below professor.
- 9.
The first Australian woman to become a papal countess in her own right.
- 10.
Here the term ‘Reader’ is used in a different sense to that on page 44. AS indicated above, such Readers would not be paid by the University but directly by their students.
- 11.
Readers were to be paid directly by their students.
- 12.
For British universities, languages of the Middle East and Asia were all included in the term Oriental Languages, reflecting British imperial interests of the time.
- 13.
It was an Oriental Studies department in a very broad sense, encompassing mainly Semitic Studies.
- 14.
Thomas Jollie Smith had studied Japanese as he intended to undertake missionary work amongst the Japanese in Korea.
- 15.
Eastern languages was the term Fowles used rather than Oriental or Asian languages.
- 16.
According to McLure (2011, p. 4), J.B. Conyngham was the first candidate to be offered the chair, but it was Bernard Key who was subsequently offered the chair and took up the position. De Garis does not mention Conyngham at all.
Bibliography
Government Reports, Records and Legislation
Commonwealth of Australia. (1917). Historical records of Australia: Series I- despatches to and from Sir Thomas Brisbane, volume XI, January 1823–November 1825. Canberra, Australia: The library committee of the Commonwealth Parliament.
NSW Government Courts and Tribunals Services. (n.d.). History of NSW courts and tribunals. Accessed from http://www.courts.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/cats/history.html on 10 July 2014.
Pearson, C. (1878). Public education: Royal commission of enquiry. Report on the state of public education in Victoria and suggestions as to the best means of improving it. Melbourne, Australia: John Ferres, Government Printer.
Academic Reports and Surveys, Conference Proceedings
Committee on the teaching of modern languages in the secondary school. Australian Council for Educational Research. (1940). Modern languages in the secondary school. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press in association with Oxford University Press.
Wykes, O. (1966). Survey of foreign language teaching in the Australian universities. Canberra, Australia: Australian Humanities Research Council.
Wykes, O., & King, M. (1968). Teaching of foreign languages in Australia. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research.
University Records and Official Publications
University of Adelaide. (n.d.). Seek light: South Australia’s first university and Adelaide’s first vice-chancellor. Accessed from http://www.adelaide.edu.au/seek-light/stories/augustus-short.html on 19 Jul 2014.
University of Adelaide. (1882). The Adelaide University calendar for the academical year 1882. Adelaide, Australia: W. K. Thomas & Co.
University of Adelaide. (1889). The Adelaide University calendar for the academical year (p. 1889). Adelaide, Australia: W. K. Thomas & Co.
University of Adelaide. (1898). The Adelaide University calendar for the academical year (p. 1898). Adelaide, Australia: W. K. Thomas & Co.
University of Melbourne. (1881). The Melbourne University calendar for the academic years 1881–1882. Melbourne, Australia: University of Melbourne.
University of Melbourne. (1883). The Melbourne University calendar for the academic years 1882–1883. Melbourne, Australia: University of Melbourne.
University of Melbourne. (1884). The Melbourne University calendar for the academic years 1883–1884. Melbourne, Australia: University of Melbourne.
University of Melbourne. (1887). The Melbourne University calendar 1887. Melbourne, Australia: Samuel Mullen and George Robertson & Co.
University of Melbourne. (1902). The Melbourne University calendar 1902. Melbourne, Australia: Melville & Mullen.
University of Melbourne. (1904). The Melbourne University calendar 1904. Melbourne, Australia: Melville & Mullen.
University of Melbourne. (1914). The Melbourne University calendar 1915. Melbourne, Australia: Ford & Son.
University of Melbourne. (1915). The Melbourne University calendar 1916. Melbourne, Australia: Ford & Son.
University of Melbourne. (1916a). Council minutes, 3 July 1916.
University of Melbourne. (1916b). Council minutes, 24 July 1916.
University of Melbourne. (1917a). Council minutes 5 November 1917.
University of Melbourne. (1917b). The Melbourne University calendar 1918. Melbourne, Australia: Ford & Son.
University of Melbourne. (1920). The Melbourne University calendar 1920. Melbourne, Australia: Ford & Son.
University of Melbourne, Joint Committee of Enquiry. (1913). Report of the joint committee of enquiry submitted to council at its meeting No. 14, Monday 17 November, 1913. Council minutes, 1 November 1913, item 3, pp. 461–475.
University of Melbourne Matriculation results (1902). UMA.
University of Oxford. (1903). The student’s handbook to the university and colleges of Oxford (16th ed.). Oxford, UK: The Clarendon Press.
University of Queensland Senate. (1935). In University of Queensland Senate (Ed.), An account of the University of Queensland during its first 25 years 1910–1935. Brisbane, Australia.
University of Sydney. (1853). The Sydney University calendar. 1852–53. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney Accessed from http://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/Calendar/1852/1852-3.pdf on 25 July 2011.
University of Sydney. (1854). The Sydney University calendar. 1854. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney Accessed from http://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/Calendar/1854/1854.pdf on 25 July 2011.
University of Sydney. (1856). The Sydney University calendar. 1856. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney Accessed from http://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/Calendar/1856/1856.pdf on 25 July 2011.
University of Sydney. (1867). The Sydney University calendar. 1867. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney Accessed from http://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/Calendar/1867/1867.pdf on 14 Jan 2014.
University of Sydney. (1868). The Sydney University calendar. 1868. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney Accessed from http://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/Calendar/1868/1868.pdf on 14 Jan 2014.
University of Sydney. (1870). The Sydney University calendar. 1870. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney Accessed from http://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/Calendar/1870/1870.pdf on 14 Jan 2014.
University of Sydney. (1919). Report of the Senate of the University of Sydney for the year ended 31 December 1918. In Calendar of the University of Sydney 1919. Sydney, Australia: Angus & Robertson.
University of Sydney. (1931). University of Sydney calendar 1931. Accessed from http://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/Calendar/1931/1931.pdf on 25 June 2014.
University of Tasmania. (1891). University of Tasmania calendar 1892. Hobart, Australia: J. Walch & Sons.
University of Western Australia. (1929). Calendar for the University of Western Australia for the year 1929. Perth, Australia: Fred W. M. Simpson, Government Printer.
Newspapers
Wentworth, C. (1849, September 7). Foundation of a university. Sydney Morning Herald, p. 2.
Books, Articles and Websites
Alexander, F. (1963). Campus at Crawley. Melbourne, Australia: F. W. Cheshire for the University of Western Australia Press.
Australasian Universities Modern Languages Association (AUMLA). (1950). Proceedings of the first congress Melbourne, 14–19 August 1950. Melbourne, Australia: AUMLA.
Baldassar, L. (2004). Italians in Western Australia: From ‘dirty ding’ to multicultural mate. In R. Wilding & F. Tilbury (Eds.), A changing people: Diverse contributions to the state of Western Australia (pp. 252–265). Perth, Australia: Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Office of Multicultural Interests.
Barcan, A. (1980). A history of Australian education. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Barcan, A. (1993). Latin and Greek in Australian schools. History of Education Review, 22(1), 32–46.
Barnard, M. (1962). A history of Australia. Sydney, Australia: Angus & Robertson.
Blainey, G. (1957). A centenary history of the University of Melbourne. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
Brock, M., & Curthoys (Eds.). (1997). The history of the University of Oxford: Volume VI nineteenth-century Oxford, part I. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
Brooke, C. (1993). A history of the University of Cambridge, Volume IV, 1870–1990. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, C., & Proctor, H. (2014). A history of Australian schooling. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Cannon, M. (1993). Melbourne after the gold rush. Main Ridge, Australia: Loch Haven Books.
Clark, M. (1969). Bromby, John Edward (1809–1889). Canberra, Australia: Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University Accessed from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bromby-john-edward-3063/text4517 on 26 Sept 2013.
Davis, R. (1990). Open to talent: The centenary history of the University of Tasmania 1890–1990. Hobart, Australia: University of Tasmania.
de Garis, B. (Ed.). (1988). Campus in the community: The University of Western Australia 1963–1987. Perth, Australia: University of Western Australia Press.
Duncan, W., & Leonard, R. (1973). The University of Adelaide 1894–1974. Adelaide, Australia: Rigby.
Edgeloe, V. (1990). French and German in the University of Adelaide during the university’s first hundred years of teaching 1876–1975: A brief account. Adelaide, Australia: Victor Edgeloe Publications.
Edgeloe, V. (2003). Annals of the University of Adelaide. Adelaide, Australia: Barr Smith Press.
Fennessy, K. (2007). A people learning: Colonial Victorians and their public museums, 1860–1880. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Firth, C. (1929). Modern languages at Oxford 1724–1929. London: Oxford University Press.
Fornasiero, J., & West-Sooby, J. (2012). A tale of resilience: The history of modern European languages at the University of Adelaide. In N. Harvey, J. Fornasiero, G. McCarthy, C. Macintyre, & C. Crossin (Eds.), A history of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Adelaide, 1876–2012 (pp. 133–180). Adelaide, Australia: University of Adelaide Press.
Forsyth, H. (2014). A history of the modern Australian university. Sydney, Australia: NewSouth Publishing.
Galbally, A. (1995). Redmond Barry: An Anglo-Irish Australian. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
Gregory, J. (2013). Introduction. In J. Gregory (Ed.), Seeking wisdom: A centenary history of the University of Western Australia (pp. 1–14). Crawley, Australia: UWA Publishing.
Hall, H. (1969). Childers, Hugh culling Eardley (1827–1896). Canberra, Australia: Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre for Biography, Australian National University Accessed from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/childers-high-culling-eardley-3202/text4813 on 26 Sept 2013.
Harris, R. (1976). A history of higher education in Canada 1663–1960. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Harte, N. (1986). The University of London 1836–1986: An illustrated history. London: The Athlone Press.
Horne, J., & Sherington, G. (2012). Sydney: The making of a public university. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Publishing.
Horne, J., & Sherington, G. (2013a). ‘Dominion’ legacies: The Australian experience. In D. Schreuder (Ed.), Universities for a new world: Making a global network in international higher education, 1913–2013 (pp. 285–307). London: The Association of Commonwealth Universities and Sage Publications.
Horne, J., & Sherington, G. (2013b). Education. In A. Bashford & S. Macintyre (Eds.), The Cambridge history of Australia, Volume 1, the commonwealth of Australia (pp. 367–390). Port Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, G. (2014). An introduction to higher education in Canada. In K. Joshi & S. Paivandi (Eds.), Higher education across nations (Vol. 1, pp. 1–38). Delhi, India: B. R. Publishing.
Kingston, B. (2006). A history of New South Wales. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Klarberg, F. (1996). Italian in Australia: Accreditation as a public examination subject 1920–1935. ConVivio, 2(2), 154–163.
Macintyre, S., & Selleck, R. (2003). A short history of the University of Melbourne. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
MacLaurin, E. (1969). Beg, Wazir (1927–1885). Canberra, Australia: Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University Accessed from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/beg-wazir-2964/text4315 on 14 Jan 2014.
Martin, M. (2005). Permanent crisis, tenuous persistence: Foreign languages in Australian universities. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 4(1), 53–75.
McDowell, R., & Webb, D. (1982). Trinity College Dublin, 1592–1952: An academic history. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
McLauchlan, G. (2004). A short history of New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin Books (NZ).
McLure, M. (2011). Thirty years of economics: UWA and the WA branch of the economics society from 1963 to 1992. History of Economics Review, 54, 70–91.
Meaney, N. (1985). Australia and the world. Melbourne, Australia: Longman Cheshire.
Murray, J. (2004). Watching the sun rise: Australian reporting of Japan 1931 to the fall of Singapore. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Moore, D. (2001). Duntroon: A history of the Royal Military College of Australia 1911–2001. Canberra, Australia: Royal Military College of Australia.
Nadel, G. (1957). Australia’s colonial culture: Ideas, men and institutions in mid-nineteenth century Eastern Australia. Melbourne, Australia: F.W. Cheshire.
Osborne, M. (1967). Thomson, Sir Edward Deas (1800–1879). Canberra, Australia: Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University Accessed from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/thomson-sir-edward-deas-2732/text3855 on 11 Feb 2014.
Pascoe, J. (1901). History of Adelaide and vicinity. Adelaide, Australia: Hussey & Gillingham.
Persse, M. (1967). Wentworth, William Charles (1790–1872). Canberra, Australia: Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University Accessed from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wentworth-william-charles-2782/text3961, on 11 Feb 2014.
Phillips, J. (n.d.). History of immigration, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Accessed from https://teara.govt.nz/en/history-of-immigration/print on 23 Feb 2018.
Prest, J. (Ed.). (1993). The illustrated history of Oxford University. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Robertson, B. (2010). The people’s university: 100 years of the University of Queensland. St Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press.
Scott, E. (1936). A history of the University of Melbourne. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
Selleck, R. (2003). The shop – The University of Melbourne 1850–1939. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
Thomis, M. (1985). A place of light & learning – The University of Queensland’s first seventy-five years. St Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland Press.
Thomis, M. (1986). Melbourne, Alexander Clifford Vernon (1888–1943). Canberra, Australia: Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University Accessed from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/melbourne-alexander-clifford-vernon-7552 on 26 Aug 2011.
Turney, C., Bygott, U., & Chippendale, P. (1991). Australia’s first. A history of the University of Sydney, Volume 1, 1850–1939. Sydney, Australia: Hale & Iremonger.
Tweedie, S. (1994). Trading partners: Australian and Asia 1790–1993. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press.
Vamplew, W. (1987). Australians: Historical statistics. Broadway, Australia: Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates.
Walker, D. (2009). Anxious nation (2nd ed.). New Delhi, India: SSS Publications.
Walker, J. (1896). Can we afford it? The Tasmanian university – Its cost and work. Hobart, Australia: William Grahame.
Woodburn, S. (1983). The founding of a university: The first decade. (Prepared from original records in the University Archives). Adelaide, Australia: University of Adelaide.
Zainu’ddin, A. (1988). The teaching of Japanese at Melbourne University 1919–1941. History of Education Review, 17(2), 46–62.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baldwin, J.J. (2019). The Founding of Australian Universities. In: Languages other than English in Australian Higher Education. Language Policy, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05795-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05795-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05794-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05795-4
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)