Online Encyclopedia
University of Otago
| University of Otago | |
| Motto | Sapere aude "Have courage to be wise." |
| Established | 1869 |
| Chancellor | Mr Lindsay Brown |
| Vice-Chancellor | Dr Graeme Fogelberg |
| Location | Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Students | 19,000 total |
| Homepage | http://www.otago.ac.nz |
The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university and the world's most southerly. It is the South Island's largest employer and claims to have the world's longest-established annual Capping Show and New Zealand's oldest ballet company.
The university was founded in 1869, and opened in July 1871. Its motto is "Sapere aude" ("Dare to be wise"). This motto was copied by the University of New Zealand.
Until 1961 the University of Otago was affiliated with the University of New Zealand, and issued degrees in its name. However, as a full university in itself, it retained degree-granting powers, but chose not to exercise them. The dissolution of the University of New Zealand saw these degree-granting powers re-instated.
Some of its many diverse buildings appear in the following panorama:
180° view of Dunedin shot from the hills on the west. (Enlarge!)
It began teaching medicine in 1875, and is one of the two medical schools in New Zealand.
Many Fellowships add to the diversity of the people associated with "Otago". They include:
- Burns Fellowship
- Caroline Plummer Fellowship in Community Dance
- Charles Hercus Fellowship
- Claude McCarthy Fellowship
- Foxley Fellowship
- Frances Hodgkins Fellowship
- Henry Lang Fellowship
- Hocken Fellowship
- James Cook Fellowship
- THB Symons Fellowship
- William Evans Visiting Fellowship
In 1998, the physics department gained some fame for making the first Bose-Einstein condensate in the southern hemisphere.
The 2004 Government investigation into research quality (to be used for future funding) put Otago in fourth place in New Zealand.
Colleges and halls
These Colleges and halls are not as significant in the academic life of the University compared with colleges of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
| College | Founded | |
|---|---|---|
| Selwyn | 1893 | Website |
| Knox | 1909 | Website |
| St Margaret's | 1911 | Website |
| Studholme Hall | 1915 | Website |
| Arana Hall | 1943 | Website |
| Aquinas | 1952 | Website |
| University College | 1969 | Website |
| Salmond Hall | 1981 | Website |
| Hayward Hall | 1992 | Website |
| City College | 2000 | Website |
| Carrington Hall | ? | Website |
| Cumberland Hall | ? | Website |
| Toroa House | ? | Website |
Notable alumni and alumnae
- Tan Sri Dato' (Dr) Hj Ahmad Azizuddin Bin Hj Zainal Abidin (Dr Ahmad, former Speaker of the Perak State Legislative Assembly)
- Barbara Anderson
- Professor Murray Brennan of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York
- Sir Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa), former visiting professor at Yale University then Director of the Bishop Museum of Hawaii
- Dame Silvia Cartwright, Governor-General of New Zealand
- Sir Geoffrey Cox, co-founder of World Wide Television (today one of the main television news agencies)
- Bill English
- George Griffiths, publisher, journalist, regional historian, and Hocken Fellow 1998
- Alison Holst (nee Payne)
- Fergus Hume
- Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas, City and Business Adviser to the Mayor of London, sitting in the London cabinet, Board Member of the London Development Agency (chairing its Business Committee, and (inter alia) Chairman of the Board of Governors of Birkbeck College, University of London)
- Chris Laidlaw
- John Edward "Jack" Lovelock
- Kamisese Mara
- Arnold Nordmeyer
- Professor Datuk Dr Mazlan Othman, Director-General of Malaysia's National Space Agency
- Robert Stout
- Peter Tapsell