{"story":["A university had been part of the plan for Otago from the start. The Edinburgh-based Otago Association, which planned the settlement, envisaged one in its 1847 plan, and settlement leaders Thomas Burns and James Macandrew pursued the idea. But even a high school was out of reach until the gold rushes of the early 1860s enriched the province (see Gold found at Gabriel's Gully). Macandrew, by then provincial superintendent, aimed in the long term for a Dunedin-based University of New Zealand that would help offset the province's declining gold revenue. On 3 June 1869 Governor George Bowen gave his assent to the Otago Provincial Council's University of Otago Ordinance, enabling the establishment of New Zealand's first university.","The council set aside 100,000 acres (40,500 hectares) of pastoral land 'of a quality not required for settlement' to fund the university, and the recently formed Presbyterian synod paid for a chair of mental and moral philosophy. The other founding chairs were in classics and English language and literature, and in mathematics and natural philosophy. Burns, named as the first chancellor, died before the university opened in the downtown Post Office building on Princes Street on 5 July 1871. Thirty students had enrolled by opening day and 81 in the first year, a number not passed again until 1879. Otago's was the third university in Australasia, after Sydney and Melbourne. A chair of chemistry and mineralogy followed in 1872, and within a few years lectures in mining, law and medicine were also being given.","Macandrew's hope that Otago would become the national university failed. After lobbying by Canterbury leaders, who favoured a single colonial university, Parliament created the University of New Zealand in 1870 as an examining and degree-granting body with teaching left to affiliated colleges. Provincial rivalry was sharp: in 1872 Henry Tancred of Canterbury called the University of Otago a 'complete sham'. In 1874 Otago became an affiliated college, losing the right to grant its own degrees but keeping its title. Its main building, with the clock tower, was completed in 1878, and from 1879 University of New Zealand examination papers were marked in the United Kingdom. Otago regained its independence and its power to confer degrees when the University of New Zealand was dissolved in 1961.","Women could attend classes at Otago from the beginning, but until the late 1870s they were eligible only for certificates, not degrees. In 1878 Caroline Freeman, a Dunedin teacher, became the first matriculated woman to enrol, and on 27 August 1885 she was capped as the university's first woman graduate. The university council decided that medical training should be open to women and men, and in April 1891 Emily Siedeberg, born at Clyde, the daughter of a German architect who had come to New Zealand in 1861, lured by gold, began studying medicine. In 1896 she became New Zealand's first woman medical graduate, followed by Margaret Cruickshank in 1897. By 2019 the university had more than 20,000 students, including nearly 3,000 international students."],"sources":[{"title":"Tertiary education","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/tertiary-education","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Tertiary education – Universities before 1990","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/tertiary-education/page-1","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"University of Otago founded","url":"https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/university-otago-founded","publisher":"NZHistory, Manatū Taonga"},{"title":"Otago places – Dunedin","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/otago-places/page-6","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Freeman, Caroline","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2f26/freeman-caroline","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Siedeberg, Emily Hancock","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3s16/siedeberg-emily-hancock","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Health practitioners – Medical practitioners","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/health-practitioners/page-2","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"}]}