Memories and milestones: Scenes from UOW's first 50 years

Prologue

The backdrop is an industrial town, yet a place of singular natural beauty. The 20th century has entered its second half.

You see people who have lived through depression and war, yet hope and ambition shape their future. New arrivals from Europe bring skills and strength to the workforce, enriching the town’s culture. The clothes, cafes, and shops are brighter now. A new generation is being born in large numbers. They will seek wider opportunities, embrace change, and come to be known as the “boomers.” I will be one of them.

In 1951, a Division of the NSW University of Technology in Sydney (later the University of NSW) is established in the Illawarra Technical College to produce leaders and highly trained staff in the engineering, metallurgy, and applied sciences essential for industry.

Ten years later, a site is selected for a University College on green farmland beneath Mt Keira, named Djera by the Dharawal people. The mountain, an enduring landmark, will become emblematic of the institution’s identity. A Mayoral Appeal raises $50,000 for its development, supplemented by contributions from major industries.

Future site of the UOW Wollongong campus as viewed from Mt Keira north-east to Fairy Meadow c1950s. Photo: UOW Archives.

The campus begins as an ungainly creature—half-finished, angular buildings and coal wash car parks. Cows will roam its western edges until the early ’70s. Just over 300 students take their places in 1962, mostly male. Over the next two decades, student numbers double, and disciplines expand to include Arts, Commerce, and broader Science offerings. Demographics shift, and the male-to-female ratio balances. Mini-skirts and t-shirts emblazoned with radical slogans mingle with the flannelette shirts of engineering students. (And in 1968, an excited young student in an improbable yellow mini-dress steps onto the scene—I begin a lifelong connection with this place under the mountain.)

The academic staff are a diverse mix of conservative yet dedicated founders and a more progressive wave in the Arts, Commerce, and Sciences. As the late 1960s echo with demands for freedom internationally, the College is also looking to fly by those nets.

The 1970s open with the announcement of autonomy by the NSW State Government. Preparations begin in earnest. More staff enter the scene, including a troupe of professional staff. Like some of their academic colleagues, they are often colourful characters (notably a Registrar, prone to wear purple lace shirts and drive a yellow Holden ute). Some are refugees from the teaching and clerical professions. Their task is to set up the apparatus for independence. They work with commitment and a spirit of fun and comradeship that was to define the young University.

The name of the independent institution is debated. Some opt for George Bass University, in honour of the English explorer who sailed into Tom Thumb lagoon. Others suggest The University of the Illawarra. The final choice is the name of the home city—Wollongong. Thus, the University was and remains the only Australian university named in the language of the First Peoples.

In 1973, the University’s Vice-Chancellor Designate arrives at the “Chancellory,” a former Engineering/Science building where staff work in converted laboratories. Professor Michael Birt is seen as an incongruous choice. A leading scientist, he brings with him the air of the great English universities. He is erudite and humane, a devoted follower of John Henry Newman. He brings a sense of credibility, which is braced by the presence and wise counsel of the first Chancellor, Justice Robert Marsden Hope.

An independent university

On 31 December 1974, the campus community gathers for a memorable New Year’s Eve party. At midnight, they toast the birth of the independent University of Wollongong.

The next morning, 1 January 1975, the first Council meeting is held. Some attendees, a little weary from the night before, approve the rules and policies that will guide the institution’s future.

Aerial view of the UOW Wollongong campus in the late 1970s. Photo: UOW Archives.

The mood is optimistic. The academic enterprise moves forward with five faculties—Engineering, Humanities, Mathematics, Science, and Social Sciences. A medical school is even considered. The campus begins to take shape: a half-built Library at its core, a bustling Union building, and a University Hall for graduations where, at last, UOW’s own degrees are conferred on home turf.

Professor Michael Birt, UOW's inaugural Vice-Chancellor, brings credibility and vision. Over his six years in office, Birt spearheads two defining successes: the amalgamation with the Wollongong Institute of Education and the transformation of the campus landscape. These fundamental changes to the scene are curiously linked. The first would ensure viability in numbers and the second would inspire many more students, staff and visitors.

Former UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Birt delivers the welcome address at Orientation Week in 1976. Photo: UOW Archives.

The boom years

In the 80s and 90s, a new dynamic emerges. These are the reformist years of the Hawke-Keating governments. Events at the University echo the zeitgeist.

In 1981, a new and very different Vice-Chancellor takes centre stage. Sharp-witted, enterprising and visionary, Professor Ken McKinnon, brings a change of character and pace. In the midst of the “recession Australia had to have” (as Paul Keating famously says), McKinnon, with Professor Peter Rousch, the WIE Director, successfully seals the amalgamation with the Institute. It is a model process envied by the sector. He drives an ambitious building program and the acquisition of talented staff who will become leading names in Australia and internationally.

Former UOW Vice-Chancellor Emeritus Professor Ken McKinnon AO, Sir Mark Oliphant and Ms Suzanne Walker at the 1983 UOW graduation ceremony. Photo: UOW Archives.

The “UOW Way” (later known as the Wollongong Way) comes to be recognised across the national higher education sector as innovative, bold and winning. The phrase often used is "punching above its weight".

Leaders ranging from the Executive across the faculties drive this energy. Many of them will go on to take significant roles as Vice-Chancellors elsewhere. The Faculties diversify with Health and Behavioural Sciences, Law and Informatics joining the assembly. Defining Research Flagships are established.

Academic and general staff feel the heat of progress, but morale is boosted by achievement. The student body is growing and diversifying. They throng the stage in a diversity of origins and ages. International (10 per cent of the student body in 1989) and non-recent school leaver-aged enrolments increase; the University is seen as a prized destination. It is winning the awards and ranked in the top nine universities in Australia.

In 1993, we have the confidence and audacity to go offshore. The University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) is the first and the predominant overseas university in the UAE. Once again, the University sets a model for others.

Established in 1993, the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) is located in the Dubai International Academic City. Photo: UOW Archives.

The campus landscape blooms, fulfilling McKinnon's direction to give students and staff a space to study, meet and dream. He leaves an inimitable legacy and earns the respect and awe of the UOW community.

Into a new millennium

In 1995, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gerard Sutton, is appointed as UOW's third Vice-Chancellor. He is a caring, principled leader with a big laugh and an easy connection with staff, students and the wider community. At the same time, Gerard Sutton is very astute, particularly when engaging with governments and industry. It proves a valuable quality as universities are increasingly impelled to become corporate entities.

Former UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Gerard Sutton AO at the 2016 University Fellowship & Alumni Awards. Photo: UOW Archives.

The scene changes rapidly after 2000. In typical style, the University makes bold moves in a time of economic challenge. It honours its origins, paying back a debt to the community through ground-breaking initiatives that will boost employment, educate leaders and support regional renewal. In the same year, UOW Shoalhaven opens, heralding the expansion of UOW's regional campus network. Back on the Wollongong campus, major projects include the 2007 establishment of the Graduate School of Medicine, and the ground-breaking SMART Infrastructure Facility taking its central position in 2011.

The Innovation Campus epitomises the “Wollongong Way” in action. It begins with a bold decision and will see the actual “moving of the goal posts” as the University launches the project on the soccer grounds at North Wollongong. It is to be a place where the University and the private sector can co-exist and collaborate to share and develop concepts that will reform the future of communities here and across the world.

Just as the University College grew on the paddocks below the mountain, the Innovation Campus emerges from the “green field” site as a series of distinctive buildings, the first being iC Central (now The Central) opened by then NSW Premier Morris Iemma in 2008. The iC is a model of courageous governance as the University accepts the challenge to “build it and they will come”.

The backdrop of the early century is darkened by violence and fear abroad, but UOW takes an outreaching role, spreading education, health and understanding. UOW Dubai celebrates 5,000 graduates and the University is establishing outposts of learning in Asia. At home, the Australian Institute of Innovative Materials (AIIM) opens in 2008, bringing together UOW flagship materials groups – the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) and the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) – in the one, state-of-the-art facility at Innovation Campus.

Ahead of the changing scene, UOW casts a woman in a leading role when Professor Margaret Sheil becomes Australia's first female Professor of Chemistry and then Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research.

Gerard Sutton retires in 2011 after a record-breaking 14 years in office. He leaves a thriving institution recognised for world-beating research and the first overall for student satisfaction in the Australian sector. UOW is a beacon for the city and the region that helped bring it into being.

Securing the ground

As this player and many other “pioneers” begin to leave the stage, the view is more removed, and events begin to unfold in real time.

A fourth Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Wellings, arrives in 2012 after serving as VC of the University of Lancaster in England. There is a strong hint of his fellow scientist, Michael Birt, in his approach. He prizes logic and courtesy as he readies UOW to meet the funding and other challenges facing Australian universities.

Former UOW Vice-Chancellor Paul Wellings CBE and Mrs Annette Wellings in 2014. Photo: UOW Archives.

The University’s faculties are restructured to focus on strengthening the research base and ensuring an innovative academic portfolio. There is a familiar UOW emphasis on innovation, partnerships, and a global presence. The now substantial body of alumni, across regions and countries, is visibly recognised and enlisted as valued players.

The “Wollongong Way” may be more measured, but it energises ventures such as a new Liverpool Campus and the Molecular Horizons Building. At Innovation Campus, iAccelerate is founded to promote entrepreneurship, and the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre takes a national lead.

One development stands out as exemplifying what this University stands for. To the west, under that protecting mountain, the Early Start Research and Discovery Space is established. It is a Wollongong-based national centre, built on partnership. It has a strong architectural presence, and inside is a wonderland of learning, research, and play for enquiring young minds.

As international student numbers soar, modern student accommodation buildings now cluster on the outskirts of the Wollongong campus, including a new 820-bed facility.

UOW is ranked among the top 250 universities in the world, and a study shows that its total direct, indirect, and induced economic contribution to Gross Domestic Product in 2018 was $1.4 billion.

The University celebrates with its home city and the Illawarra region. A partnership that began in 1951 has delivered extraordinary dividends. The contributions of the community through the original mayoral fund have been repaid in full and beyond.

Times of trial

In 2021, a circle is completed when Professor Patricia Davidson arrives as the fifth Vice-Chancellor. A nurse and an international leader in health policy and education, Professor Davidson is a returning Wollongong graduate. Many other graduates also see their children and grandchildren enrol at UOW, trusting the offer of care, enthusiasm, and quality.

The new VC places high value on student welfare. Always recognised for student satisfaction, the University strengthens its oversight and support. She also drives the realisation of a $500-million Health and Wellbeing Precinct, long planned for the Innovation Campus. Graduations in the regional campuses are celebrated and, overseas, Wollongong alumni enjoy special times together.

Suddenly, the world backdrop darkens as the COVID pandemic hits. The borders close, and the crucial international student intake and staff collaboration stops. The campuses are deserted, missing the laughter and the fellowship that make UOW special. Staff are not supported by any government funding. To survive, some are let go, among them many experienced people. It is a threatening, even existential moment.

Still, this is UOW. Staff and students "pivot" in record time to online learning. Research projects persist.

Eventually, life returns to the campuses, and their communities look to regain the bright promise of the previous decades.

As the University celebrates its 50th anniversary, the stage is set for renewal. The props are still there: a definitive learning experience, the passion of researchers, the beautiful campuses, and the primal link to the University's many external communities. All imbued by the spirit of the “Wollongong Way”.

Epilogue

And now, 50 years on, I take a small grandson to the Early Start Discovery Space.

There he is welcomed into the UOW world of learning, language, and imagination. He builds structures as the founding engineers did, plays with the tools of science and commerce; he hears stories and learns to work with others. Then he walks out into the green courtyard planted with native trees.

That is the Wollongong experience, now prized around the world.

Note: These scenes and stories are scripted from one person's memories. The historical facts and figures of the University's journey are drawn from Josie Castle's early work "An Illustrated History" and Nick Hartgerink's journalistic review of 1951-2011, "Regional Icon Global Achiever".