Department of Commerce

As of 1902, the public demand for Commercial Education led the University Council to enter into negotiations on the subject with the Adelaide Chamber of Commerce.  As a result, it ascertained that the mercantile community wanted a system of higher education in commercial subjects to be established by the University. [1]

In 1902 the University established an Advanced Certificate in Commerce. In 1903 the Arts course comprises three lectures a week as well as the existing one lecture-tutorial a week throughout the academic year.  All four classes were held at night. [2]

In April 1903 Joseph Fisher paid the sum of £1,000 to the University for the purpose of promoting the study of Commerce in the University. This donation was treated as an endowment, and Statutes were passed, providing that out of the income a Medal, to be called the "Joseph Fisher Medal of Commerce," would be awarded annually to the Candidate for the Advanced Commercial Certificate, who, on completing the course, was the most distinguished. It was also provided that every alternate year a lecture on some subject of Commerce, to be called the "Joseph Fisher Lecture," would be delivered at the University, and subsequently be published.

By 1904, the University Council was offering courses of lectures on Commercial Law, Economics, Accountancy and Business Practice for the Advanced Commercial Certificate. Professor Salmond delivered the lectures on Commercial Law, Professor Mitchell the lectures on Economics, and Mr. Bazett David Colvin, M.A., the lectures on Accountancy and Business Practice.  The first "Joseph Fisher" Lecture, entitled "Commercial Education", was delivered by Henry Gyles Turner of Melbourne.[3]. 

In 1908 the Advanced Certificate was expanded into a Diploma of Commerce. [4]

From 1909 a Scholarship was awarded annually to the most distinguished candidate in the Senior Commercial Examination.  After 1912 the John Creswell Scholarships, four in number, were offered. [5]

In 1909 a University Society of Commerce was also founded. The objects of the Society included (but were not limited to) assisting in furthering and improving the status of commercial education; offering scholarships in connection with any course in Commerce at the University of Adelaide; and aiming at the establishment of the Degree of Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Adelaide. [6]

As of 1910, the University had instituted a Diploma in Commerce in place of the Advanced Commercial Certificate.  The Diploma was a four year course and included Business Practice, Accountancy, Commercial Law, Economics and Commercial History, Banking and Exchange, and Commercial Geography & Technology.  Lecturers included Bazett David Colvin (Business Practice; Accountancy & Auditing), Percy Emerson Johnstone (Commercial Law), William Mitchell (Economics and Commercial History), William Neill (Banking and Exchange), and Robert John Miller Clucas (Commercial Geography). [7]

In 1915 the Archibald Mackie Bursary was founded in memory of Archibald Mackie, former Secretary of the South Australian Commercial Travellers' and Warehousemen's Association (Incorporated). [8]

By 1920 the Diploma included the compulsory subjects of Economics and Commercial History, Economic Geography, Industrial and Commercial Law, and Accountancy as well as two optional subjects chosen from Industrial Practice, Commercial Practice, Banking and Exchange, Public Administration and Finance, Transport and Marketing, Australian Industries, and Statistics. [9]

1920 also saw the Adelaide University Commerce Association being founded by the students of Commerce.  The Association's objects included to promote the study of Commerce at the University and to help forward the movement to establish a Degree in Commerce. [10]

In 1923 the George Thompson Bursary in Commerce was founded, further to the sum of  £150 paid by the Adelaide Co-operative Society, in memory of the late George Thompson, the first Secretary and Manager of the Society. [11]

In 1929, Leslie Galfried Melville, B.Eo. (Syd.), F.I.A. was appointed the first Professor of Economics. 

By 1935 a Board of Commercial Studies had been established. In 1952 the Faculty of Economics was formed, replacing the Board and comprising the Department of Economics and a new Department of Commerce. [12]

In 1953 Russell Lloyd Matthews was appointed Reader-in-Charge of Commercial Studies. He was subsequently appointed as the first Professor of Commerce in 1958.

In 1960  the degree of Master of Business Management was established.

In 1996 the Department of Commerce was renamed the School of Commerce.

On 1 January 2008 the School of Commerce was merged with the Adelaide Graduate School of Business to become the University of Adelaide Business School.

References

1. University of Adelaide Calendar, 1902, Part 5, Annual Report, p.614-615. 

2. The Teaching of Economics in the University of Adelaide, 1900-1975. V.A. Edgeloe, p.4.

3. University of Adelaide Calendar, 1904, Part 5, Annual Report, p.343.

4.The Teaching of Economics in the University of Adelaide..., op cit.

5. University of Adelaide Calendar, 1915, p.

6.University of Adelaide Calendar, 1920, p.253-254.

7. University of Adelaide Calendar, 1910, p.225-229.

8. University of Adelaide Calendar, 1945, p.286.

9. University of Adelaide Calendar, 1920, p.202-203.

10. University of Adelaide Calendar, 1925, p.280-281.

11. University of Adelaide Calendar, 1935, p.244.

12. University of Adelaide Archives Provenance Record - UAR-0501.

Professors of Commerce:

• Professor Russell Lloyd Mathews, BCom (Melb.), 1958-1964
• Professor Frederick Kenneth Wright, BMetE, BCom (Melb), FASA, 1965-1977
• Professor Murray Scott Henderson, BEc, MEc, PhD (Calif) FASA, FCPA, CA 1979-2002 (Emeritus Professor 2003)