University of Tasmania

Founding

The University of Tasmania was established on 1 January 1890, after the abolition of overseas scholarships freed up funds. It immediately took over the role of the Tasmanian Council for Education. Richard Deodatus Poulett Harris, who had long advocated the establishment of the university, became its first warden of the senate. The first degrees to graduates admitted ad eundem gradum and diplomas were awarded in June 1890. The university was offered an ornate sandstone building on the Queens Domain in Hobart, previously the High School of Hobart, though it was leased by others until mid-1892. This eventually became known as University House. Three lecturers began teaching eleven students from 22 March 1893, once University House had been renovated. Parliamentarians branding it an unnecessary luxury made the university's early existence precarious. The institution's encouragement of female students fuelled criticism. James Backhouse Walker, a local lawyer and briefly Vice-Chancellor, mounted a courageous defence. By the First World War there were over one hundred students and several Tasmanian graduates were influential in law and politics.

According to Chancellor Sir John Morris, from 1918 until 1939 the institution still 'limped along'. Distinguished staff had already been appointed, such as historian William Jethro Brown, physicists and mathematicians Alexander McAulay and his son Alexander Leicester McAulay, classicist RL Dunbabin, and philosopher and polymath Edmund Morris Miller. Housed in the former Hobart High School, facilities were totally outgrown, but the state government was slow to fund a new campus.

In 1914 the university petitioned King George V for Letters Patent, which request he granted. The Letters Patent, sometimes called the Royal Charter, granted the university's degrees status as equivalent to the established universities of the United Kingdom, where such equivalents existed.

World War II

During the Second World War, while the Optical Munitions Annexe assisted the war effort, local graduates, replacing soldier academics, taught a handful of students. New post-war staff, many with overseas experience, pressed for removal to adequate facilities at Sandy Bay on an old rifle range. Chancellor Sir John Morris, also Chief Justice, though a dynamic reformer, antagonised academics by his authoritarianism. Vice-Chancellor Torliev Hytten, an eminent economist, saw contention peak while the move to Sandy Bay was delayed. In a passionate open letter to the premier, Philosophy Professor Sydney Orr goaded the government into establishing the 1955 Royal Commission into the university. The commission's report demanded extensive reform of both university and governing council. Staff were delighted, while lay administrators fumed.

Post-war years

On 10 May 1949, the university awarded its first Doctor of Philosophy to Joan Munro Ford. Ford worked as a research biologist in the University of Tasmania's Department of Physics between 1940 and 1950.

In early 1956 Orr was summarily dismissed, mainly for his alleged though denied seduction of a student. A ten-year battle involved academics in Australia and overseas. Orr lost an unfair dismissal action in the Supreme Court of Tasmania and the High Court of Australia. The Tasmanian Chair of Philosophy was boycotted. In 1966 Orr received some financial compensation from the University, which also established a cast-iron tenure system. The latter disappeared with the federal reorganisation of higher education in the late 1980s.

In the early 1960s The University of Tasmania at last transferred to a purpose-built new campus at Sandy Bay, though many departments were initially housed in ex-WWII wooden huts. It profited from increasing federal finance following the 1957 Murray Report. Medical and Agricultural Schools were established and the sciences obtained adequate laboratories. Physics achieved world recognition in astronomy (optical, radio and cosmic rays), while other departments attracted good scholars and graduates were celebrated in many fields. Student facilities improved remarkably.

Mergers and the "new" university

The 1965 Martin Report established a traditional role for universities, and a more practical role for colleges of advanced education. The Tasmanian Government duly created the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education (TCAE) in 1966 sited on Mount Nelson above the university. It initially incorporated The School of Art, the Conservatorium of Music and the Hobart Teachers College. In 1971, a Launceston campus of the TCAE was announced. These were fateful decisions, as events over the next years showed. It was argued that the TCAE attempted to compete with the university, not complement it.

In 1978 the University of Tasmania took over two of the courses offered by the TCAE in Hobart, Pharmacy and Surveying, following a report by Professor Karmel, and another by H.E. Cosgrove. Some other TCAE courses in Hobart moved to Launceston. The curious situation of three separate courses in teacher education in the State could not last, however, and following two more reports, the university incorporated the remaining courses of the Hobart campus of the College of Advanced Education in 1981, which raised its numbers to 5000. The Launceston campus of the TCAE renamed itself the Tasmanian State Institute of Technology (TSIT).

In 1987, the University Council resolved to approach the TSIT to negotiate a merger to minmise ongoing conflict. The 'Dawkins Revolution' and the 'unified national system' provided later support for this initiative. The Tasmanian State Institute of Technology became the Newnham Campus of the university on 1 January 1991, exactly 101 years after the university's founding. A new campus at Burnie on the North-West Coast of Tasmania was opened in 1995, and later became known as the Cradle Coast Campus. Though the amalgamated institution retained the old name of University of Tasmania, like other contemporary institutions a new era dominated by market forces rather than generous public funding controls its future.

The Australian Maritime College (AMC), situated adjacent to the Newnham campus, integrated with the university in 2008. The University of Tasmania and TasTAFE are now the only public institutions of tertiary education in Tasmania; the private Tabor College Australia also offers bachelor-level awards.

Campuses

The University of Tasmania has three main generalist campuses: Sandy Bay, Newnham and the Cradle Coast campuses, and numerous satellite campuses listed below.

Southern

Northern

North-West

Sydney

Libraries

The University of Tasmania library system comprises seven physical libraries integrated into a single library system:

1. Morris Miller Library (Sandy Bay) including Special & Rare Collections
2. Law Library (Sandy Bay)
3. Art Library (Centre for the Arts)
4. Music Library (Conservatorium of Music)
5. Clinical Library (Medical Sciences Precinct)
6. Launceston Campus Library (Newnham)
7. Cradle Coast Campus Library (Cradle Coast)

Rankings

The University's national and international reputation is reflected by its top-10 standing as a recipient of research funding in Australia, and reaffirms its place in the top 2 per cent of research institutions in the world. The University is ranked 305th according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2015.

The University's research strengths take advantage of these capabilities and Tasmania's unique characteristics, including its natural environment and geographical location. They lie in the thematic areas of Environment, Resources and Sustainability; Creativity, Culture and Society; Health; Marine, Antarctic and Maritime; and Data, Knowledge and Decision-making.

Organisation

The University of Tasmania has six faculties, some divided into schools, and three institutes:

The University currently holds the secretariat role of the International Antarctic Institute established in 2006 in partnership with 19 institutions in 12 countries.

A partnership between the University and the Cradle Coast Authority established the Institute for Regional Development at the Cradle Coast campus in 2005.

Research

The university's priority research themes include:

Research institutions include:

The University of Tasmania maintains close linkages with the Tasmanian Government and its departments, with the teaching hospitals, with the Tasmania Police, and with relevant industry bodies such as fishing and farming.

Student unionism

Until 2008, there were two separate student unions: the Tasmania University Union (TUU) in Hobart and the Student Association (SA) in Launceston. Following the abolition of compulsory student unionism in 2007, the SA and the TUU amalgamated into one statewide organisation representing all UTAS students.

The TUU is responsible for the overseeing of all the university’s many sports clubs and societies. Some of these include faculty-based societies providing academic and careers guidance; societies relating to various interests, such as the Old Nick Company; and various sporting clubs, including cricket, football, rugby union and soccer.

Postgraduate students are represented by the TUU through the Tasmania University Union Postgraduate Council. The TUU Postgraduate Council was previously organised as the Tasmania University Postgraduate Association (TUPA). TUPA was established in 1982 to represent postgraduate research students on campus independently of the TUU.

Residential colleges and student accommodation

The university maintains a strong residential college system, as well as providing more independent apartment-style living. A key aspect of campus life, the residential colleges are equipped with modern facilities and host several events during the semesters. The colleges also maintain their respective student clubs, key in the passing of traditions from one cohort to the next. The southern colleges annually compete in a series of sporting events including Rugby, Australian Football, Cricket, Softball, Basketball, Table Tennis, Tennis and Soccer.

The college system comprises Christ College, Jane Franklin Hall and St. John Fisher College in Hobart, and Kerslake Hall, Leprena and Investigator Hall in Launceston. The university accommodation system also includes the University Apartments and Mount Nelson Villas in Sandy Bay, Hobart Apartments in the Hobart CBD, Endeavour Hall in Beauty Point for students of the Australian Maritime College, Newnham Apartments and Inveresk Apartments in Launceston, and West Park Apartments in Burnie.

Two other residential colleges once existed in Hobart – the non-denominational Hytten Hall (1959–1980) located on the Sandy Bay campus, and now used as a building for the Faculty of Education, and Ena Waite Women's College (1968–1980), operated by the Catholic Church and located in central Hobart, which amalgamated with St. John Fisher College. An off-campus student residence in Launceston, Clarence House, operated from 2004 to 2008.

Tasmania Scholarships

The Tasmania Scholarships program supports the University’s commitment to offer students equal learning opportunity. It assists talented students, both locally, nationally and internationally. Industry contributions now make up the backbone of the Tasmania Scholarships program. The development and growth of this initiative into one of the most successful sponsored programs in the country is exceptional by any standard. Around 10 per cent of all domestic students at UTAS receive some sort of scholarship or financial assistance.

Notable people

The University of Tasmania has produced many notable alumni, with graduates having held the offices of Governor of Tasmania, Justices of the High, Supreme, Federal courts, Premiers of Tasmania and elected leaders of other states and territories, Rhodes Scholars, the first female professor in Australia, ministers of foreign countries, Lord Mayors, academics, architects, historians, poets, philosophers, politicians, scientists, physicists, authors, industry leaders, defence force personnel, corporate leaders, community leaders, and artists. There are currently over 100,000 graduates of the University of Tasmania, spanning 104 countries.