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ESTABLISHING THE NEW COLLEGE LECTURES<br />
Establishing the<br />
New College Lectures<br />
(1983-86)<br />
Rev Dr Bruce Kaye am<br />
The first New College Lectures were given in 1987, but they began life in a<br />
document presented to the College Board in June 1983. On his appointment<br />
in January 1983, the new Master, Rev Dr Bruce Kaye, had been given the<br />
brief of developing the College in its vocation as an Anglican university<br />
college representing within The University of New South Wales what a<br />
Christian academic college might look like. The proposal was that the College<br />
should have a way of exercising a Christian witness in the various levels of<br />
university life – undergraduate, postgraduate, faculty and public engagement.<br />
Rev Dr Bruce Kaye am<br />
The June report flagged a number of<br />
developments, which were endorsed<br />
by the College Board and also<br />
supported by the student body. These<br />
included a Resident Fellows programme for<br />
distinguished academics visiting UNSW, faculty<br />
inter-disciplinary seminars, and career entry<br />
seminars for College members. These all began<br />
in the following four years. The Institute for<br />
Values Research was initiated a little later but,<br />
in fact, started operating in the same year as the<br />
Lectures. The Institute was to facilitate research<br />
into the values implicit in the workings of public<br />
institutions in Australia and to engage those<br />
values with a Christian critique.<br />
Amongst these initiatives was the<br />
proposal to establish an annual set of public<br />
lectures. The Lectures were to serve the role<br />
and vocation of New College as an Anglican<br />
institution. This was a university college whose<br />
alumni would be engaged in vocations located<br />
in the wider society and its industries and<br />
professions. The Lectures were thus to deal<br />
with the kinds of themes that would serve<br />
those vocations.<br />
The foundation documents of New College<br />
identify one of its purposes as that of:<br />
‘…advancing the Christian religion and<br />
morality, and the promotion of useful<br />
knowledge.’<br />
4 NEW COLLEGE LECTURES 30TH ANNIVERSARY