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.
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]
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]
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:
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.
Among the most notable Old Paulines are Sir William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (1971–1972), Gough Whitlam, 21st Prime Minister of Australia (1972 to 1975), John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (1999-2005), incumbent Chief Justice of New South Wales Andrew Bell, prominent barrister Bret Walker, journalist Tony Jones, cricketer Ed Cowan, media proprietor Warwick Oswald Fairfax and comedian Adam Spencer.
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]
