Charter of the University of Sydney

February 27th, 1858

VICTORIA, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, to all to whom these presents shall come Greeting: Whereas under and by virtue of the provisions of an Act of the Governor and Legislative Council of our Colony of New South Wales, passed in the fourteenth year of our reign, No. 31, intituled ‘An Act to Incorporate and Endow the University of Sydney’, and to which our Royal Assent was granted on the 9th day of December, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-one, a Senate, consisting of Sixteen Fellows, was incorporated and made a body politic with perpetual succession, under the name of the University of Sydney, with power to grant, after Examination, the several degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, Doctor of Laws, Bachelor of Medicine, and Doctor of Medicine, and to examine for Medical Degrees in the four Branches of Medicine, Surgery, Midwifery and Pharmacy.

And whereas our trusty and well-beloved Sir William Thomas Denison, Knight Commander of our most honourable Order of the Bath, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Engineers, our Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over our said Colony, has transmitted to us the humble Petition of the Senate of the said University of Sydney under their common seal, dated the 9th day of February, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-seven, wherein is set forth a statement of the establishment of the said University, the appointment of learned Professors of the Faculty of Arts, and the Provisions adopted and to be adopted in respect of the Faculties of Laws and Medicine, and the course of Education and discipline for the Scholars, Undergraduates, and Graduates of the said University, and in which it is humbly submitted that the standard of acquirements which must be attained by Graduates in the University of Sydney is not below that prescribed by the most learned Universities of the United Kingdom, and the direction of the studies in the said University has been committed to Professors who have highly distinguished themselves in British Universities, that the rules under which the high standard in the University has been fixed cannot be altered without the approval of our representative in the Colony, and that there is invested in him the power of interference should the rules laid down be unduly relaxed in practice, and that, therefore, the Memorialists confidently hope that the Graduates of the University of Sydney will not be inferior in scholastic requirements to the majority of Graduates of British Universities, and that it is desirable to have the degrees of the University of Sydney generally recognised throughout our dominions; and it is also humbly submitted that although our Royal Assent to the Act of Legislature of New South Wales hereinbefore recited fully satisfies the principle of our law that the power of granting degrees should flow from the Crown, yet that as that assent was conveyed through an Act which has effect only in the territory of New South Wales, the Memorialists believe that the degrees granted by the said University under the authority of the said Act, are not legally entitled to recognition beyond the limits of New South Wales; and the Memorialists are in consequence most desirous to obtain a grant from us of Letters Patent requiring all our subjects to recognise the degrees given under the Act of the Local Legislature in the same manner as if the said University of Sydney had been an University established within the United Kingdom under a Royal Charter or an Imperial enactment; and the Memorialists therefore hereby most humbly pray that we will be pleased to take the premises into our gracious consideration and grant to the University of Sydney Letters Patent effective of the object therein set forth.

Now know ye that we, taking the premises into consideration, and deeming it to be the duty of our Royal office, and for the advancement of religion and morality and the promotion of useful knowledge to hold forth to all classes and denominations of our faithful subjects, without any distinction whatsoever, throughout our dominions encouragement for pursuing a regular and liberal course of education, and considering that many persons do prosecute and complete their studies in the Colony of New South Wales, on whom it is just to confer such distinctions and rewards as may induce them to persevere in their laudable pursuits; do, by virtue of our Prerogative Royal and our especial Grace and certain knowledge and mere motion, by these presents of us, our heirs and successors, will, grant and declare that the Degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, Doctor of Laws, Bachelor of Medicine, and Doctor of Medicine, already granted or conferred or hereafter to be granted or conferred by the Senate of the said University of Sydney shall be recognised as Academic distinctions and rewards of merit and be entitled to rank, precedence, and consideration in our United Kingdom and in our Colonies and possessions throughout the world as fully as if the said Degree had been granted by any University of our said United Kingdom.

And we further will and ordain that any variation of the Constitution of the said University which may at any time or from time to time be made by an Act of the said Governor and Legislature shall not, so long as the same or a like standard of knowledge is in the opinion of the said Governor preserved as a necessary condition for obtaining the aforesaid degrees therein, in any manner annul, abrogate, circumscribe, or diminish the privileges conferred on the said University by these our Royal Letters Patent, nor the ranks, rights, privileges, and consideration conferred by such degrees.

And, lastly, we do hereby for us, our heirs, and successors, grant and declare that these our Letters Patent or the enrolment or exemplification thereof shall be in and by all things valid and effectual in law according to the true intent and meaning of same, and shall be construed and adjudged in the most favourable and beneficial sense to the best advantage of the said University, as well in all our courts as elsewhere, notwithstanding any non-recital, uncertainty, or imperfection in these our Letters Patent. In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patent.

Witness ourself at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of February, in the Twenty-first year of our Reign.

BY WARRANT under the Queen’s sign manual.