The New College Communities are home to 562 undergraduates and postgraduates studying and researching at the University of New South Wales. The New College Communities have been affiliated with UNSW since 1969.
Our nearly 7000 alumni have contributed enormously to the University’s global academic standing and to leadership across all sectors of society within Australia and internationally.
The New College Communities presently comprise:
- New College, the residential community for 247 undergraduate students at UNSW.
- New College Postgraduate Village, the residential community for 315 postgraduate and upper-year undergraduate students at UNSW.
Our two communities are formally affiliated with the University of New South Wales but are operated independently by a not-for-profit company, associated with the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.
Our Colleges are founded on Christian faith and values. The communities celebrate, and are enriched by the cultural diversity of our staff and students – not imposing any religious test on students but welcoming people of all faiths and philosophies. The New College Communities are members of University Colleges Australia (UCA) and Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC).
New College was founded by the New University Colleges Council (NUCC) and opened its doors to UNSW students in 1969. New College Postgraduate Village opened in 2009 and was a development undertaken by New College during the tenure of the College’s fifth Master, Prof Trevor Cairney OAM.
The New College Communities, in some ways, pay homage to the traditional collegiate model developed at Oxford and Cambridge Universities – living and learning combined within quadrangle buildings. The New College founders saw that the Oxbridge residential colleges were holistic institutions, taking responsibility for both the social and academic dimensions of undergraduate life. Over more than five decades, New College and NCV have worked to refine this model to operate fun and safe residential communities at one of Australia’s foremost universities. The pastoral care and academic support that underpins student life within our communities promotes wellbeing and leadership development so that every collegian can flourish in a diverse and cross-disciplinary environment.
In 2019, New College celebrated its 50th Anniversary and New College Postgraduate Village celebrated its 10th Anniversary. In that year, the history of the New College Communities was published in a book titled, Something Borrowed, Something Blue: 50 Years of New College, UNSW.
Purchase the New College Communities history book.
The New College Lectures are our flagship lecture series. In 1986, the College set up a Trust to conduct an annual series of public lectures so that eminent public figures, academics and theologians could address an important issue or aspect of contemporary society and comment on it from the standpoint of their Christian faith and professional expertise. The lectures are usually run in September and are often broadcast by ABC Radio.
Find out more about the New College Lectures.
CASE is a specialist centre that aims to provide Christian commentary on social, intellectual and academic issues, and engage people of all persuasions in debate and discussion concerning contemporary issues of broad interest. It does this through the CASE website, the Case Quarterly publication, and through seminars and conferences.
Visit the CASE website.
Master's Welcome
Adjunct Prof Bill Peirson, Master & CEO
Welcome to the New College Communities at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia – undergraduate and postgraduate residential colleges providing accommodation at UNSW.
The New College Communities have always sought to be much more than places to live. New College and New College Postgraduate Village are home to 562 outstanding men and women who enrich one another’s lives. You can study, eat and sleep in any apartment building or hall of residence, but our New College Communities are much more than that.
The founders of New College recognised that university education should offer more than just a degree or qualification. Our residents do very well academically, but they also look for ways to make a difference to the world through service to others. This begins in the way we support one another and contribute to community life, and it extends to impacting campus life and the wider world.
Our aim is to build a community whose members have positive influences on each other’s lives. The New College Communities provide a network of relationships enabling connectedness and a sense of belonging. The academic support and pastoral care systems reflect the fact that welfare and growth of students are at the core of College life.
Great universities of the world do more than simply deliver degrees; they inspire and transform their students into lifelong learners and contributors wherever they might be.
They also produce research and scholarship that has an influence for good in the world: solving problems, creating new forms of technology, enriching the arts, informing social and economic policy and so on. The New College Communities exist to serve the University of New South Wales, particularly its students, and we are grateful for these opportunities. We see it as a privilege to offer opportunities for students from all over the world to experience the unique life that our New College Communities offer. Why don’t you consider joining us?
Adjunct Prof Bill Peirson
Master & CEO
Vice-Chancellor's Welcome
At UNSW, as within the New College Communities, creating an engaging student experience, academically and culturally, is one of our highest priorities.
UNSW Vice Chancellor Attila Brungs
It is my pleasure to welcome you to UNSW Sydney, of which the New College Communities are a valued affiliate.
When you join the UNSW and New College Communities, you belong to a vibrant, supportive and diverse community of people who share a passion for knowledge and the desire to make a contribution to our world.
UNSW is one of Australia’s leading universities. We are a community of more than 70,000 students and staff with a vision to improve lives globally, through innovative research, transformative education and commitment to a just society. This vision, and our strategic priorities of Academic Excellence, Innovation and Engagement, and Societal Impact drive everything we do.
Since UNSW was established in 1949, we have remained committed to our purpose of anticipating and responding to the needs of society, equipping our students with the knowledge and skills they need to make a positive contribution to communities in Australia and around the world.
I would be delighted for you to join our University community in this quest to have a positive impact on the society in which we live. Through the education and research you will undertake, you have the potential to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems and truly make a difference.
At UNSW, as within the New College Communities, creating an engaging student experience, academically and culturally, is one of our highest priorities.
As part of our community, you will learn from the very best academics and be supported by dedicated professional staff. You will be encouraged to be curious, to ask questions and to think critically. You will gain skills, knowledge and experience that will prepare you for fulfilling lives and careers.
Our academic record and graduates’ successes are sources of great pride: New College has been home to more than 100 University Medallists; and in early 2023, UNSW was named ‘AFR Most Employable University’ for the fourth year in a row in the Top100 Future Leaders Awards, with 33 of our students named as most employable, the greatest number from any Australian university.
Furthermore, as a member of the UNSW and New College Communities, you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the full breadth of university culture: an incredibly special element of residential life on campus and a supremely enriching experience. The esprit de corp of college life is a true gift. It’s a supportive structure in which lifelong friendships, shared ideas and rewarding futures can germinate and flourish. I encourage you to live your University and college life to the full.
I wish you a thoroughly enjoyable time at UNSW and within the New College Communities. Please, take care of each other, and if you see me around campus, do come and say hello.
Best regards
Attila
Professor Attila Brungs
Vice-Chancellor and President
UNSW Sydney
UNSW Affiliation
The New College Communities are affiliated colleges of The University of New South Wales (UNSW). This means that New College and New College Postgraduate Village are independent from – not owned or managed by UNSW – but closely partnered with the University.
‘Affiliation’ is a concept rooted in the establishment of Australia’s very first university, The University of Sydney. Historically, in England, universities and their colleges were essentially one and the same. Oxford and Cambridge, the only officially recognised universities in England until 1832, each constituted a federation of colleges. To be a member of a university was to be a member of a college. Colleges were highly exclusive, due in large part to their religious tests for entry. However, this was challenged in the late 18th and 19th centuries, with the continuing humanist legacy of the Enlightenment and the start of the Industrial Revolution.
It was in this climate that The University of Sydney was founded in 1852. It adopted a different model to the old English universities. The central University would teach the students, and any religious input would happen in independent denominational colleges. The ensuing University of Sydney’s 1854 Affiliated Colleges Act cemented the term and concept in Australian universities.
By the 1960s, the period in which New College was established, affiliation had become the dominant relational model for denominational colleges at universities. New College’s founding body, the New University Colleges Council (NUCC) therefore drew up terms of affiliation and negotiated their acceptance with UNSW. Both parties agreed that New College should have responsibility for its own students. The only real stipulation made by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Philip Baxter, was that the College uphold the University’s principle of open entry, free of any religious test or condition. Specifically, he wanted the College to adhere to Section 44 of the Technical Education and New South Wales University of Technology Act (1949).
Section 44 provided that:
No religious test shall be administered to any person in order to entitle him to be admitted as a student of the University, or to hold office therein, or to graduate thereat, or to enjoy any benefit, advantage or privilege thereof.
According to the wishes of the University and NUCC, the New College lease indeed contains an item stating “that no religious test shall be administered to any person in order to entitle him to be admitted as a student of the said college or to enjoy any benefit, advantage or privilege thereof”. The University Council passed a resolution declaring New College to be an affiliated college on 10 May 1965. When New Collage Postgraduate Village opened in 2009, it followed the same pattern, becoming an affiliated college of UNSW, founded on Christian faith and values but open to people of all faiths and none.
New College and New Collage Postgraduate Village are valued members of UNSW, having contributed thousands of students over the last fifty years to the University’s success. We have been home to over 100 University medallists, 4 Rhodes Scholars, over 80 PhD recipients in the last ten years alone, and countless students who have become leaders in a broad range of professions and industries. As the University recognised all those years ago, affiliated colleges enrich the lives of students and enrich the University as a whole.
At the New College Communities’ 50 th and 10 th anniversary celebrations in 2019, Chancellor of UNSW, Mr David Gonski AC, commented,
There will be no stopping for this University and a lot of it comes from the strength of this College.
Governance & Policies
The New College Board consists of 10 Directors with 8 appointed by the Standing Committee of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, 1 appointed by the University of New South Wales, and 1 appointed by Members of the Company. Appointments are typically for 4 years, with a maximum of 3 four-year terms.
The authority of the Board is derived primarily through the powers and responsibilities given to it by the Constitution of the Company of New College, the Corporations Act 2001 and the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission Act 2012, and is accountable to its principal stakeholder being the Company of New College and through it the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. Other stakeholders include the staff, the residents who make up the community of New College, and alumni.
The object of the Board is the management, governance and control of New College to achieve the objects of the Company (set out in the Constitution).
Key responsibilities include appointment of the Master and senior staff, determining the College’s mission statement, approving annual budgets both for operations and capital works, overseeing financial performance, and determining the College’s policy framework in which the Master manages the College.
In general terms, for the good governance and management of the College, the distinctive role of the Board is to make policy and verify its implementation.
Click here to view the College's response to Recommendation 9 of the Australian Human Rights Commission's Change The Course report.
Mission & Vision
Mission
We cultivate outstanding university campus communities of academic excellence and pastoral care, shaped by Christian faith and values, where every student can flourish.
Vision
To be known as the premier family of university residential colleges in Australia — communities that, through our Christian foundations, inspire intellectual, moral and spiritual development to prepare men and women for service and leadership.
Motto, Crests & Colours
Motto
The New College motto is taken from the Latin version of Psalm 111:10
Initium Sapientiae Timor Domini
In English, this is translated as:
The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom
There is a painting in the Dining Room of New College that symbolises the motto in traditional Aboriginal art form.
Crests & Colours
The description of the original New College Crest is:
Argent two chevrons sable, on a chief azure, an open book proper between two mullets of eight points argent !
The book symbolises the College's relationship with the University of New South Wales ('Scientia' was added in 1987); the two stars link the College to the Anglican Diocese of Sydney; and the chevrons are for the College's namesake: New College, Oxford.
The official colours of New College are blue, black and grey (sometimes represented as silver). From 1969, New College sporting teams had played in red and black. However, in early 1974, the NCSA resolved to change the sporting colours to blue, black, and grey to make them consistent with the College’s academic colours. In practice the NCSA continued to produce merchandise, such as jumpers, in the College ‘red’ up until the late 1980s but over time the blue, black and grey gained prominence until the red disappeared.
Green was chosen as the colour for New Collage Postgraduate Village’s logo and branding during its development. In 2018, the College Board formally approved the colour green for branding of New College Postgraduate Village and a crest was created accordingly.
Community Handbooks
DOWNLOAD THE 2024 NEW COLLEGE HANDBOOK DOWNLOAD THE 2024 NCPV HANDBOOK