University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania.[14] One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the world's first universities to admit students solely on academic merit, and opened its doors to women on the same basis as men.[15] The university comprises eight academic faculties and university schools, through which it offers bachelor, master and doctoral degrees.
Five Nobel and two Crafoord laureates have been affiliated with the university as graduates and faculty.[16] The university has educated eight Australian prime ministers, including incumbent Anthony Albanese; two governors-general of Australia; 13 premiers of New South Wales; and 26 justices of the High Court of Australia, including five chief justices. The university has produced 110 Rhodes Scholars and 19 Gates Scholars. The University of Sydney is a member of the Group of Eight, CEMS, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
The university comprises eight faculties and schools:[89]
The five largest faculties and schools by 2020 student enrolments were (in descending order): Arts and Social Sciences; Medicine and Health; Business; Science; Engineering. Together they constituted nearly 88% of the university's students and each had a student enrolment over 8,000 (at least 13% of total students).[90]
The SRC and Union are both governed by student representatives, who are elected by students each year. Elections for the USU board of directors occur in first semester; elections for the SRC president, and for members of the Students' Representative Council itself, occur in second semester, along with a separate election for the editorial board of the student newspaper Honi Soit, which is published by the SRC.[133]
Charles Perkins Oration and Prize[edit]
Since 2000, the Dr Charles Perkins Oration has been held by the university, in honour of its first Aboriginal graduate, Charlie Perkins.[134] The orations have been delivered by prominent First Nations people, including Linda Burney, Pat Anderson, Daniel Browning, Mick Gooda and Ken Wyatt.[135]
The Oration includes the Charles Perkins Memorial Prize, which recognises the achievements of the top three Indigenous students at the university, based on the highest academic results in their field.[134]
In 2021, the awards event could not be held in the great hall, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, but Perkins' daughter, filmmaker Rachel Perkins, announced the recipients, and introduced Tony McAvoy, Australia's first Indigenous Queen's Counsel, to deliver the oration.[136][137]
Controversies[edit]
A quarter of the university's female students residing in university colleges have been found to face sexual harassment.[138] Between 2011 and 2016, there were 52 officially reported cases of sexual abuse and harassment on campus released by the university, resulting in one expulsion, one suspension and four reprimands.[139] This is less than the 2017 Australian Human Rights Commission report on sexual assault and harassment which found reported figures substantially higher than this.[140] 71% of students surveyed in 2017 reported not knowing how to make a report relating to sexual assault or harassment. Imogen Grant from the SRC said students who had experienced sexual assault had come forward believing that "navigating the university bureaucracy exacerbates trauma and often seems futile".[141] Previously a 2015 survey of 2,000 students found that 57 per cent of respondents did not know where to seek help or how to report sexual misconduct at USYD, and only 1.4% of all serious sexual incidents are reported.[142] After the release of the 2017 report the vice-chancellor said the university was committed to implementing "all of the recommendations contained in the report".[141] Graphic videos emerged in 2018 of male students bragging of their sexual feats over the female students, particularly first-years.[143]
In 2015, 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.[144] Fairfax reported Spence and other Uni bosses have salary packages worth ten times more than staff salaries and double that of the Prime Minister.[145]
In 2020, the University of Sydney revealed it had been underpaying staff and was reviewing six years worth of payroll shortfalls.[146] In 2021, it announced that it had underpaid staff a total of $12.75 million to 12,894 staff members.[147] In October 2021, 80 casual staff members made a $2 million wage theft claim for paying for each assignment marked instead of by the hour, underpayment for teaching preparation, lecture attendance, student consultation and other teaching duties, as well as misclassifying marking work at a level that attracts a lower pay.[148]
In April 2022, the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales fined the University of Sydney $61,000 for disposing a broken positron emission tomography scanner with a radioactive source inside at a scrap metal yard.[149]