Office of the Provost

The Provost is the Vice-Chancellor's senior deputy and together they are responsible for the general management of the University. He/she deputises for the Vice-Chancellor in his absence.

The Provost is responsible for the strategic leadership and operational delivery of the University's academic objectives. He/she exercises, under the direction of the Vice-Chancellor, general executive responsibilities in connection with the academic programs of the university involving the conduct, coordination, and quality of these programs and the planning of their future development. This includes oversight of the University's academic staff with the aim of the recruiting and retaining staff of the highest distinction in research and in teaching, and ensuring continuous improvement in performance.

The Provost is the line manager of all Deans, and, under the Vice-Chancellor, he/she has ultimate authority for all academic budgets. He/she also supervises the University Librarian.

Professor Stephen Garton
Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Professor Stephen Garton was appointed as the Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney in August 2009.

Professor Garton is a is a graduate of the University of Sydney (BA) and the University of NSW (PhD) and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and the Royal Australian Historical Society. His area of research expertise is Australian history, although he has also published in the fields of American and British history. His major books include Medicine and Madness: A Social History of Insanity in NSW 1880-1940 (1988), Out of Luck: Poor Australians and Social Welfare 1788-1988 (1990), The Cost of War: Australians Return (1996) and Histories of Sexuality: Antiquity to the Sexual Revolution (2004). He is also a co-author with Shane White, Stephen Robertson and Graeme White of a forthcoming book Black Kings and Queens, a study of the culture of the numbers rackets in Harlem in the 1920s, to be published by Harvard University Press in 2010. He has also published extensively in such fields as the history of psychiatry, crime, poverty, social policy, eugenics, policing, masculinity and returned soldiers. More recently he has published on the history of parole in the American South and the emergence of criminal psychiatry in New York State.

At the University of Sydney Professor Garton has been Head of the Department of History (1996-1998), an Associate Dean and Pro Dean in the Faculty of Arts (1991-1995, 1999) and a member of the Academic Board for nearly fifteen years. He was appointed Professor of History in 2000 and Challis Professor in 2004. From 2001 to 2009 Professor Garton was Dean of the Faculty of Arts, before taking up the role of Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor. In addition he has been a member of the Editorial Board of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, the Executive Committee of the Australian Historical Association and on the Council of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.