Page "Macquarie University" Paragraph 5

First Students at Macquarie UniversityThe idea of founding a third university in Sydney was flagged in the early 1960s when the New South Wales Government formed a committee of enquiry into higher education to deal with a perceived emergency in university enrollments in New South Wales.

During this enquiry, the Senate of the University of Sydney put in a submission which highlighted ‘ the immediate need to establish a third university in the metropolitan area ’.

After much debate a future campus location was selected in what was then a semi-rural part of North Ryde, and it was decided that the future university be named after Lachlan Macquarie, an important early governor of the colony of New South Wales.