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University of Otago

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The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 20,000 students enrolled during 2006. It is the South Island's largest employer and claims to have the world's 2nd longest continuously running annual student revue (the Capping Show) and New Zealand's oldest ballet company (the Selwyn Ballet).

Founded in 1869, the university opened in July 1871. Its motto is "Sapere aude" ("Dare to be wise"). (The University of New Zealand subsequently adopted the same motto.) The University of Otago Students' Association answers this with its own motto, "Audeamus" ("let us dare").

Between 1874 and 1961 the University of Otago was a part of the University of New Zealand, and issued degrees in its name. The University is known throughout the country for its unique student lifestyle and particularly its flatting culture, where students generally share semi-dilapidated housing units with a unique name and "character building" domestic life.

Otago graduates are known to be among the most dispersed alumni in the world, with many graduates ultimately settling in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, China, India, Sri Lanka, Japan or elsewhere in New Zealand.

Some of the University's many diverse buildings appear in the following panorama:

pandunedin_small.jpg
180° view of Dunedin shot from the hills on the west. The university can be seen in front of the large hill to the left. ([Enlarge!])

The University clocktower viewed from Castle Street.
The University clocktower viewed from Castle Street.

Contents

Faculties

Interior of Central Library, University of Otago
Enlarge
Interior of Central Library, University of Otago

Administratively, the university is divided into four divisions: Commerce, Health Sciences, Humanities, and Sciences. For external and marketing purposes, the Division of Commerce is known as the School of Business, as that is the term commonly used for its equivalent in North America. Historically, there were a number of Schools and Faculties, which have now been grouped with standalone departments to form these divisions.

In addition to relatively usual university disciplines, the Otago Medical School (founded 1875) remains one of only two in New Zealand (with constituent branches in Christchurch and Wellington). Other professional schools and faculties not found in all New Zealand universities include Pharmacy, Physical Education, Physiotherapy,Medical Laboratory Science, and Surveying. It is also the only university to offer training in Dentistry. It was also home to the School of Mines, until this was transferred to the University of Auckland in 1987. Theology is also offered, traditionally in conjunction with the School of Ministry, Knox College, and Holy Cross, Mosgiel.

Distinctions

Many Fellowships add to the diversity of the people associated with "Otago". They include:

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 serve as a basis for future funding) ranked Otago in fourth place in New Zealand.

Journal "Science" has recommended worldwide study of Otago's Biochemistry database "Transterm", which has genetic code data on 40,000 species.

Otago was recently ranked 114th from a listing of top 200 institutions in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and within 201-300 in the Shanghai Jiaotong rankings of world top 500 universities.

Colleges and Halls

The vast majority of first year ('fresher') students at the University of Otago stay in one of the many Halls of Residence. These provide food, accommodation, social and welfare services.

Some of the colleges have developed a strong institutional personality over the years. This becomes self-perpetuating as applicants choose the college most suited to their own personality. Quiet, conservative St Margaret's is next to the large, generic Unicol in the heart of the campus. |Aquinas College, being the smallest and perhaps farthest of the halls, has developed a more tight-knit community than many of the others. City College is influenced by two-thirds of its students coming from the Dunedin College of Education or the Otago Polytechnic, and Toroa House is almost exclusively filled by international students.

Halls of residence affiliated with the University of Otago select students based on their marks, extracurricular activities and high school testimonials. However, some halls of residence are more selective than others. Although their order varies from year to year, the most selective halls and colleges are consistently Knox College, Selwyn College and Carrington Hall. Unsuccessful applicants are referred to other colleges.

St Margaret's has similar entry standards, but the reputation of the college as quiet, religious and hard-working tends to attract a self-selected small group of highly-qualified applicants.

Otago's residential Colleges and Halls are not as significant in the life of the University when compared with the Colleges and Halls of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Some halls seek to imitate Oxbridge colleges (occasional tutorials, "fellows", chapels etc) but students' primary affiliation is to the University rather than the hall, and the bulk of formal education does not take place within the college.

College Founded
Selwyn College 1893 [Website]
Knox College 1909 [Website]
St Margaret's 1911 [Website]
Studholme Hall 1915 [Website]
Arana Hall 1943 [Website]
Carrington Hall 1945 [Website]
Aquinas College 1952 [Website]
University College 1969 [Website]
Salmond Hall 1971 [Website]
Hayward Hall 1992 [Website]
City College 2000 [Website]
Cumberland Hall ? [Website]
Toroa House ? [Website]

[Official list]

Merger with Dunedin College of Education

Currently, the university and the Dunedin College of Education (a specialist teacher training institution) have approved a merger. A new entity merging the College and the university's Faculty of Education would be based on the College site, and include the College's campuses in Invercargill and Alexandra. It is intended that the merger take effect in 2007. A merger has been considered before, however the present talks have progressed further, and more amicably, than previously.

Notable alumni and alumnae

Internal Wikipedia links

(with Hall of Residence, if any, in parentheses where known) Roderick Carr, former acting governor of the Reserve Bank Tim Gibson, chief executive of NZ Trade & Enterprise David Kirk, Rhodes scholar, World Cup winning All Black captain and CEO Fairfax (Australia)

Rhodes Scholars from the University of Otago

(College at Oxford in brackets)

External links

See also

External links


Universities in New Zealand
Auckland University of Technology | Lincoln University | Massey University | University of Auckland | University of Canterbury | University of Otago | University of Waikato | Victoria University of Wellington

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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