Educating for Business, Public Service and the Social Sciences

Tertiary economics and business education started early in Australia but was not organised on a faculty basis until the 20th century. Commerce and business teaching at Sydney University began in 1906, and from 1920 was taught in the Faculty of Economics, together with public administration and accounting. Its progress for the next 80 years is chronicled in this comprehensive history of the Faculty of Economics.

The book presents a broad overview of staff, students and courses of study during Depression, war, postwar reconstruction, student unrest and successful moves to add further Business studies. A prelude surveys the 19th-century beginnings and the epilogue presents the varied education opportunities offered for the 21st century by the Faculty of Economics and Business.

Peter Groenewegen is an honorary associate and professor emeritus of economics at the University of Sydney.

List of illustrations
List of abbreviations
Dean’s preface
Author’s preface and acknowledgements
Prelude: pragmatism versus principle – bringing commercial and economics education to the University of Sydney

1. Two professors, many part-time teachers, brilliant graduates and fine social occasions: beginnings of the new, professional, Faculty of Economics (1920–28)
2. The faculty in Depression and war, 1929–45
3. Post-war reconstruction and shortening the BEc degree (1945–62)
4. The Merewether Building (1965) and a Golden Jubilee (1970): the faculty (1963–72)
   
5. Turmoil in the cloisters: university governance, student participation and the political economy dispute, 1973–84
   
6. Towards a Faculty of Economics and Business: new degrees and increased opportunities for specialisation, 1985–99

Epilogue: the Faculty of Economics and Business in its first decade
Bibliography
Index

'Groenewegen uses a variety of sources, supplementing official records with the reminiscences of former students and with a range of secondary material, including published memoirs and obituaries.'
J.E. King   History of Economics Review

' ... the author deserves the gratitude of the Australian economics community ... The scholarship is impressive, particularly the immense research that has gone into the writing of the books, based as they are upon exhaustive archival investigation, and interviews and correspondence with former staff and students.'
Selwyn Cornish   A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform