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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

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