News Release:
UNE marks 50 years as the nation's first independent regional university
| 11/2/04 025/04 Fifty years ago, on February 1, 1954, the New England University College (NEUC), won its independence and became the first autonomous regional university in Australia. However, the formal cutting of the umbilical chord with its parent institution, the University of Sydney, on that date was virtually eclipsed locally and nationally by a much more sensational media event. The imminent arrival in Sydney of the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip two days later stole the limelight, and the fanfare which might have accompanied the birth of autonomous University of New England was subsumed in euphoric anticipation of the royal visit. In the Armidale Express of February 1, 1954, a picture of the royal couple and details of the visit was the front page news along with an observation from the new university's Senior Lecturer in Charge of the Faculty of Arts, Frank Letters. Mr Letters, a classical scholar and keen skywatcher had observed that at one minute past midnight he saw "a meteoric stream across the sky westwards from between The Pointers and the Southern Cross….. within two minutes two others without trains flashed across the sky from the same quarter". He suggested it might be incorporated into the design of the new university's heraldic emblem. UNE, established as a college of the University of Sydney in 1938, won its new status after a long battle with the State Government which had balked for some years at the cost of funding another independent university. It acceded only when Sydney University refused to consider establishing a department of external studies.
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The Premier, Joe Cahill, and his Education Minister Robert Heffron, wanted to train more secondary teachers to meet the anticipated demands of the post war baby boomers. Sydney University rejected out of hand pressure from the government to offer correspondence courses for graduate teachers, regarding the concept as contrary to the traditional value of face to face teaching on campus. However, it supported autonomy for UNE. As a last resort the Premier looked northwards for a solution and NEUC Warden Robert Madgwick and the Advisory Council willingly accepted the challenge as the price of independence. It accorded with Robert Madgwick's enthusiasm for adult education, and local sovereignty appeared the only means to achieve the appointment of professors and significant growth. A further condition of autonomy involved cooperation with the New South Wales University of Technology to offer correspondence courses in Arts at Newcastle University College. So, with no assurance of a permanent annual endowment and added responsibilities, the new University of New England was proclaimed by Act of Parliament in December 1953. In the Armidale Express on January 29, 1954, Sir Robert summed up the optimism of the moment by declaring that UNE was "dedicated to the service of the people of New South Wales without whose help it cannot fail to makes its contribution to the already high traditions of University education in Australia." Media contact: Lydia Clifford, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 2779. |
