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 2013, it was ranked 37th and in the top 0.3% in the QS 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 Crafoord 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 Huffington Post, spreading across the inner-city suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington. 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 (APRU), the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning, the Australia-Africa Universities Network (AAUN), the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Worldwide Universities Network. The University is also colloquially known as one of Australia's sandstone universities. In 1848, in the New South Wales Legislative Council, William Wentworth, 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. 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, 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 Woolley, 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 Camperdown. 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 Montagu 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.

Rankings:

The 2014–15 QS 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 QS based on criteria including "research, employability, teaching, facilities, internationalisation, innovation, specialist criteria and inclusiveness". The 2016 QS Graduate Employability 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. The 2013 QS 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, Pre-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 Centre 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 employability, 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. 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 Crafoord laureates. The University, being one of the first open to women throughout the world, produced graduate Jane Foss Barff 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.

Endowments and Research Grants:

The University of Sydney currently has financial endowments totalling $829 million. A drop due to recent downturn of the global economic situation. The university's turnover, in turn, was A$1.3 billion in 2008. Latest figures show that the University of Sydney has received the highest amount of research grants, which may demonstrate its research competitiveness and the size of its students and staff body. The University of Sydney also has the second largest (behind Monash University) body of students and researchers among Australian universities. 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.

Main Campus:

The main campus has been ranked in the top 10 of the world's most beautiful universities by the British Daily Telegraph, The Huffington Post and Disney Pixar, among others such as Oxford and Cambridge and is spread across the inner-city suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington. Originally housed in what is now Sydney Grammar School, in 1855 the government granted land in Grose Farm to the university, three kilometres from the city, which is now the main Camperdown campus. The architect Edmund Blacket designed the original Neo-Gothic 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 university's administrative headquarters, 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 (known as 'the Union') in possession of three buildings – Wentworth, Manning and Holme Buildings. These buildings house a large proportion of the university's catering outlets, and provide space for recreational rooms, bars and function centres. One of the largest activities organised by the Union is the Orientation Week (or 'O-week'), centring on stalls set up by clubs and societies on the Front Lawns. The university is currently undertaking a large capital works program 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. The new home for the Sydney Law School, located alongside Fisher Library on the site of the old Edgeworth David and Stephen Roberts buildings, has been completed.