Celebrating our legacy
By The Honourable Catherine Branson AC SC
Creating a new university for Adelaide in 1874 was ambitious and not universally popular. Indeed, newspaper articles and letters from that era regularly portrayed the concept as overzealous and likely to fail.
Fast forward to today, however, and the manner in which our University has grown and stamped its place on our city and our State is indisputable. Our impact on South Australia, and around the world, has been significant.
Yet some of those concerns heard more than 150 years ago can still be heard today as we take the necessarily “ambitious” steps required to secure and advance our University’s future.
Throughout the history of this wonderful institution, change has been a constant. It is certainly not the same place now as it was when I first came to “Adelaide Uni” in the 1960s as a young woman. Buildings have come and gone. Courses of study have arisen and faded. The needs of our community have changed. Our society has changed. Our work lives have changed. Our technology has changed. Our world is so different.
What has not changed is the essence of this wonderful institution which I credit with transforming me and my life for the better. This University helped shape the person I would become and the life I would live. Not just by providing a country girl from a conservative family with a legal and liberal arts education but, perhaps more importantly, by broadening my horizons.
It is a powerful place which has changed the lives of many because the University’s core business has not wavered during its history. The sole object remains the advancement of learning and knowledge. That is, teaching: passing on knowledge – and research: generating new knowledge.
In my current role I am fortunate to spend time on our campuses. I see on them an increasingly diverse cohort of young people committed to developing their own understanding of the world and addressing its many challenges. I also see our exceptional academics dedicated to the University’s core purposes of creating and sharing knowledge.
I share your love for our past. Indeed, I share the same past.
This place has always done that, but how it achieves that has involved growing, changing and adapting regularly. In the contemporary environment, it’s critical that we focus on graduate skills, real-world impact, and engagement with industry, business, governments, and the community.
2025 will be a transformative year as we continue efforts to achieve the successful establishment, and opening, of the new Adelaide University. I will continue to work with my colleagues on Council to protect our values, our people, our students and our goals to deliver the best possible outcomes for our University of Adelaide students, staff and stakeholders.
Concurrently we will be diligent in our efforts to ensure that, when the doors to Adelaide University open on the first of January 2026, we are prepared to play our part in a change that will resonate across future generations. I have no doubt becoming Adelaide University is the necessary next step in our evolution.
I share your love for our past. Indeed, I share the same past. Yet I do not mourn this change. It will not erase any of us, or what we have achieved. Rather, it will ensure the future of an institution of great importance to our State, its people, and to us. It will ensure we can pass on the light of learning and research for many generations of students to come. We need to ensure we can make them ready for their era, as we were readied for ours.
The future students of “Adelaide Uni” will need, as we did, a University embracing transformational teaching and learning, reimagined research, exceptional student experience and powerful partnerships. They too will then have the good fortune, as do we, to be able to say they are graduates of Adelaide Uni. Nothing will change that.
The Hon. Catherine Branson AC SC is the Chancellor of the University of Adelaide. Catherine graduated from the University with an LLB in 1970 and a BA in 1977. Her career saw her appointed the first female Crown Solicitor in Australia; as CEO of the Attorney General’s Department, the first woman to head a government department in South Australia; a judge of the Federal Court of Australia; and President of the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Catherine was appointed to the University of Adelaide Council in 2013, was elected Deputy Chancellor in 2017 and Chancellor in 2020.
Images: Catherine addressing guests at the University’s 150th Gala Ball; her graduating law class in 1970 (Catherine is front row, fourth from left).