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University
of Otago |
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ABOUT UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO :
The University
of Otago, founded in 1869 by an ordinance of the Otago
Provincial Council, is
 New Zealand's oldest university. The new
University was given 100,000 acres of pastoral land as an
endowment and authorised to grant degrees in Arts, Medicine, Law
and Music.
The University opened in July
1871 with a staff of just three Professors, one to teach
Classics and English Language and Literature, another having
responsibility for Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy, and the third to cover Mental and Moral Philosophy.
The following year a Professor of Natural Science joined the
staff. With a further endowment provided in 1872, the syllabus
was widened and new lectureships established: lectures in Law
started in 1873, and in 1875 courses began in Medicine. Lectures
in Mining were given from 1872, and in 1878 a School of Mines
was established; this later became the Department of Mineral
Technology and was transferred to the University of Auckland in
1987.
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The University was originally
housed in a building (later the Stock Exchange) on the site of
John Wickliffe House in Princes Street but it moved to its
present site with the completion of the northern parts of the
Clocktower and Geology buildings in 1878 and 1879. The School of
Dentistry was founded in 1907 and the School of Home Science
(now Consumer and Applied Sciences) in 1911. Teaching in
Accountancy and Commerce subjects began in 1912. Various new
chairs and lectureships were established in the years between
the two world wars, and in 1946 teaching began in the Faculty of
Theology. The School of Physical Education was opened in 1947.
A federal
University of New Zealand was established by statute in 1870 and
became the examining and degree-granting body for all New
Zealand university institutions until 1961. The University of
Otago had conferred just one Bachelor of Arts degree, on Mr
Alexander Watt Williamson, when in 1874 it became an affiliated
college of the University of New Zealand. In 1961 the University
of New Zealand was disestablished, and the power to confer
degrees was restored to the University of Otago by the
University of Otago Amendment Act 1961.
Since 1961, when its roll was about 3,000, the University has
expanded considerably (in 2001 there were some 18,000 students
enrolled) and has broadened its range of courses to include
undergraduate courses in Surveying, Pharmacy, Medical Laboratory
Science, Education, Teaching and Physiotherapy, as well as
specialised postgraduate courses in a variety of disciplines.
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