St Paul's College (commonly known as Paul's) is an Anglican residential college within the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1856, it is Australia's oldest university college. Its alumni, referred to as "Old Paulines", include prime ministers, deputy prime ministers, federal and state government ministers, High Court of Australia justices, Court of Appeal presidents and justices, Supreme Court chief justices and justices, pioneering surgeons and physicists, Australian of the Year recipients and 29 Rhodes Scholars.
The College has nearly 420 residents, of whom about 300 are undergraduate men and women; the remainder are postgraduate men and women undertaking further study or holding university positions.[1] In 2019, the College opened Graduate House at St Paul's College, a community of 140 postgraduate students and university academics with its own additional facilities on the grounds.[2] In 2023 it became fully co-residential, opening to male and female undergraduates.[3] It retains most of its original 7-hectare (18-acre) grant and has its own oval.
History
St Paul's was the first university college established in Australia.[4] It was founded in 1856 following an unsuccessful attempt by members of the Anglican Church to incorporate the earlier St James's College within the new University of Sydney.[5] The founders of the University of Sydney had initially intended to emulate the collegiate structure of Oxford and Cambridge, and the founding of St Paul's as the first of the colleges was a key development as part of this vision.
The original building was designed in Gothic style by English-born architect Edmund Blacket. Blacket was a distinguished ecclesiastical architect; he also designed the main university building and would go on to supervise the construction of the Catholic St John's College at the same university.[6][7] Other buildings include a chapel (designed by John Leslie Stephen Mansfield and completed in 1960) and a residential wing designed by Clive Lucas, Stapleton & Partners which opened in 1999.[4]
By this time the College had its own distinct intellectual tradition, foreshadowed by the founders, a liberal Anglicanism which took seriously the challenges involved in combining religious and secular knowledge and in making the English Church useful to the Australian nation. The number of Paulines from this period who are now listed in the Australian Dictionary of Biography is evidence of the way the College was in step with the times.[8]
The new governing document provides for a college council with 12 fellows, four of whom must be elected Anglican clergy, six elected laymen and two appointed laymen - of which one must be a University of Sydney academic. Fellows serve six-year, renewable terms and are elected by graduates of the College who have spent at least three semesters in residence. The College is an independent body corporate, legally designated as "The Warden and Fellows of St Paul's College".[9]
At the 2010 World University Debating Championship two former Paul's students (Chris Croke and Steve Hind) took the title, winning the final against teams from Oxford, Harvard and the London School of Economics.[10] Since the 1890s, the College has fostered social-justice ideals (as part of the liberal Anglican tradition) and most students are involved at some point in philanthropic activities. During the first decade of the 21st century, half the male Rhodes Scholars from Sydney University have been Paulines. In 2010, Jack Manning Bancroft was named NSW Young Australian of the Year for his work in indigenous education.[10][11]
St Paul's College from the edge of its boundary with the university campus at the turn of the 20th century
Heraldry
Officially granted by the Earl Marshal in 1961, the College coat of arms displays crossed swords and the Maltese cross to represent St Paul in the official colours of gold and gules. The College motto, Deo Patriae Tibi, can be translated "For God, Country and Thyself" or, more poetically, "God, Thy Native Land and Thee."[12]
Academic honours
The College boasts a long list of academic honours and its website lists many University Medallists since 2005.[13] Its Rhodes Scholarship list is given below:
1907 – Garnet Vere Portus (1883–1954; in College 1903–04), afterwards cleric, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Adelaide, and radio broadcaster
1908 – Richard Granville Waddy (1885–1974; in College 1905–09), afterwards medical practitioner
1911 – Hugh Kingsley Ward (1887–1972; in College 1909–10), afterwards Professor of Bacteriology, University of Sydney
1915 – Walter Ferguson Crawford (1894–1978; in College 1913–14), afterwards knighted, Governor of Northern Sudan
1920 – Vernon Haddon Treatt (1897–1984; in College 1915–16), afterwards knighted, NSW Minister for Justice and Chief Commissioner for the City of Sydney
1925 – Allan Robert Callaghan (1903–93; in College 1922–24), afterwards knighted and South Australian Director of Agriculture
1935 – Keith Noel Everal Bradfield (1910–2006; in College 1930–33), afterwards OBE and Civil Aviation Advisor to the Government of Papua New Guinea
1939 – Walter Laurence Hughes (1917–99; in College 1934–38), afterwards Kt, head of an engineering and shipbuilding firm and government adviser
1940 – Basil Holmes Travers (1919–98; in College 1938–39), afterwards Headmaster of Shore
1946 – William Winslow Woodward (1920–87; in College 1939–40), afterwards medical practitioner
1948 – Louis Walter Davies (1923–2001; in College 1941), afterwards AO and Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of NSW
1951 – Adrian Peter Henchman (1927–89; in College 1946–50), afterwards Sydney solicitor
1953 – James Graham McLeod (b 1932; in College 1949–53), afterwards AO and Professor of Neurology, Sydney University
1956 – John Maxwell Bailey (b 1935; in College 1954), afterwards attached to the European Atomic Energy Commission, Geneva
1960 – Malcolm John Swinburn (b 1937; in College 1956–60), afterwards a medical practitioner
1961 – Peter Garnsey (b 1938; in College 1956–60), afterwards Professor of the History of Classical Antiquity, Cambridge, and Fellow of Jesus College
1964 – John Dyson Heydon (b 1943; in College 1960–64), afterwards AC and High Court justice
1975 – Peter Edward King (b 1952; in College 1971–75), afterwards Sydney barrister and Federal MP
1990 – Andrew Scott Bell (b 1966; in College 1985–89), afterwards Sydney barrister (SC), Chief Justice and Lieutenant Governor of NSW
1992 – Scott Nixon (b 1968; in College 1986–91), afterwards Sydney barrister
1995 – Peter Raymond Barnett (b 1971; in College 1990–94), afterwards UK businessman and philanthropist
2001 – Andrew Henry Charlton (b 1978; in College 1997–99), afterwards Director of AlphaBeta and Federal MP
2003 – Benjamin Juratowitch (b 1978; in College 1998), afterwards Paris barrister (QC)
2007 – Eric Ronald Wing-Fai Knight (b 1983; in College 2002–04), afterwards Associate Professor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research, Enterprise and Engagement), University of Sydney
2009 – Nikolas Norman Patrick Kirby (b 1984; in College 2005–09), afterwards Research Fellow in Philosophy and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
2010 – David Colin Conway Llewellyn (b 1985; in College 2006–09), afterwards CEO of the Good Lad Initiative and DJS Antibodies
2011 – Nathaniel Jon Ware (b 1988; in College 2009–11), afterwards social impact economist
2013 – Patrick Harry Brian Bateman (b 1987; in College 2006-10), afterwards management consultant and policy adviser
Wardens
The following individuals have served as Warden of St Paul's College:
Alumni of St Paul's College are referred to as Old Paulines. Alumni include two former Prime Ministers, three High Court judges, Supreme Court judges and 29 Rhodes Scholars, as well as influential figures in business, the law, public service, religion, science, the arts and sports.
In June 2012, an article in a local Australian newspaper critical of an event with the theme "End of the British Raj". College students adopted a dress code of "white tie or colonial uniform", and were served by the usual college catering staff, many of Indian and south Asian descent, dressed in colourful traditional cultural garments.[15][16] On 6 June 2012, the University Student Representative Council passed a motion condemning the themed party by writing a letter to the College's spokesman and the Warden asking for an explanation. Later, many Indian media groups covered this news with copies of the original Sydney Morning Herald article.[17][18][19]
Allegations of sexism surfaced in 2017 following a post on the College's Facebook page which compared women to "harpooned whales". The College declined to participate in a university-wide review into culture led by Elizabeth Broderick, instead planning to undertake their own externally managed review.[20]Michael Spence, the vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney, raised concerns regarding the "deep contempt for women" and the "cultural problems" at the College. In June 2017, Ivan Head, the Warden of the College, who had been in the role for 22 years, retired amid concerns regarding his leadership.[21] Following Broderick's review into college culture at the University of Sydney's colleges, St Paul's released a response in which it indicated it would address all recommendations.[22]
In 2024, the college expelled 6 students and suspended an additional 21 due to their involvement in the alleged abuse of another student either as bystanders or perpetrators.[23][24] Following the incident, the college committed to an investigation of the incident as well as reviewing training programs provided to new students, steps that were supported by the University of Sydney in a statement about the incident.[23][24][25]
Gallery
Panorama of St Paul's Oval, with the College located behind the trees at the far right
Main courtyard
Chapel
References
^"History". St Paul's College. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
^ abWaldren, Murray (13 September 1999). "No hidden a gender, it's taking wing". The Australian. p. 7.
^"History". St Paul's College. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2009.
^Yates, Skye (8 March 2002). "Inner-city church to inspire". Daily Telegraph. Sydney, Australia. p. 113.
^Ham, Melinda (30 October 2008). "Secrets of the city exposed – architecture". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 17.
^Hamish Milne, The Origins of St Paul's College (BA thesis, University of Sydney 1995) and St Paul's College: Another Fifty Years, 1900–1950 (MPhil thesis, University of Sydney 1997).
