The University of Otago (Māori: 'Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo') as a public university located in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is New Zealand's oldest university, with almost 21,000 students enrolled during the 2014 year.
The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality, and in 2006 was second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it employs.It topped the New Zealand Performance Based Research Fund evaluation in 2006.
Founded in 1869 by a committee including Thomas Burns, the university opened in July 1871. Its motto is "Sapere aude" ("Dare to be wise"). (The University of New Zealand subsequently adopted the same motto.) The Otago University Students' Association answers this with its own motto, "Audeamus" ("let us dare"). The university's graduation song Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus... ("Let us rejoice, while we are young") acknowledges students will continue to live up to the challenge if not always in the way intended. Between 1874 and 1961 the University of Otago was a part of the University of New Zealand, and issued degrees in its name.
Otago is known for its student life, particularly its flatting, which is often in old sub-standard houses. The nickname "Scarfie" comes from the habit of wearing a scarf during cold southern winters.
The Otago Association's plan for the European settlement of southern New Zealand, conceived under the principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield in the 1840s, envisaged a university.
Dunedin leaders Thomas Burns and James Macandrew urged the Otago Provincial Council during the 1860s to set aside a land endowment for an institute of higher education.An ordinance of the council established the university in 1869, giving it 100,000 acres (400 km2) of land and the power to grant degrees in Arts, Medicine, Law and Music.Burns was named Chancellor but he did not live to see the university open on 5 July 1871.
The university conferred just one degree, to Alexander Watt Williamson, before becoming an affiliate college of the federal University of New Zealand in 1874. With the dissolution of the University of New Zealand in 1961 and the passage of the University of Otago Amendment Act 1961, the university resumed its power to confer degrees.
Originally operating from William Mason's Post Office building on Princes Street, it relocated to Maxwell Bury's Clocktower and Geology buildings in 1878 and 1879.This evolved into the Clocktower complex, a striking group of Gothic revival buildings at the heart of the campus. These buildings were inspired by then-new main building at Glasgow University in Scotland.
Otago was the first university in Australasia to permit women to take a law degree.Ethel Benjamin graduated LLB in 1897. Later that year she became the first woman in the British Empire to appear as counsel in court.
Professor Robert Jack made the first radio broadcast in New Zealand from the physics department on 17 November 1921.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited the university library with Duke of Edinburgh on 18 March 1970. This was the first time the royals completed informal “walkabouts” to meet the public, and it was the first visit of Prince Charles (then 21 years old) and Princess Anne (19 years) to this country.
Because it had a wide range of courses, Otago attracted more students from outside its provincial district. This led to the growth of colleges and informal accommodation in north Dunedin around the faculty buildings. This development of a residential campus gave Otago a more vibrant undergraduate student life at the same time as comparable but smaller developments in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland were eclipsed in the late 20th century.citation needed Otago now has the most substantial residential campus of any university in New Zealand or Australia,citation needed although this is not without its problems.
In May 2010 University joined the Matariki Network of Universities (MNU) together with Dartmouth College (US), Durham University (UK), Queen’s University (Canada), University of Tübingen (Germany), University of Western Australia (Australia) and Uppsala University (Sweden).
The blazon of the arms granted by the Lyon King of Arms, Scotland is Azure, on a saltire cantoned between four mullets of six points Or, a book, gilt-edged and bound in a cover Gules charged with a mullet of six points of the second and a book-marker of the third issuance from the page-foot, and in an Escrol under the same this Motto "Sapere Aude".
The motto may be translated as 'dare to be wise' or 'have courage to be wise'. The shield is first described and it is blue (azure.) On the shield is a saltire which is an “X” shaped object. On the saltire sits a gilt edged book the cover of which is red (gules.) On the cover of the book is a star (mullet) of six points. Mullets normally only have five points. At the foot of the book is a bookmark also in red being the third colour mentioned. The saltire and the book are surrounded by four other stars each also of six points which are placed in the spaces formed by the saltire. The five stars and the saltire are all coloured gold (or) which was the second colour mentioned. An Escrol is the scroll under the shield containing the motto.
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