From the moment you enter Paul’s you will be welcomed and cared for, especially by your Peer Support Leaders who will maintain close personal contact with you throughout your first year.
It goes without saying that the Residential Life staff team, headed by the Warden, is dedicated to your academic and pastoral care. They all take a personal interest in each and every Pauline.
Participation, co-operation and responsible servant leadership are fundamental to the ethos and effective operation of the College. All residents are members of the Students’ Club which plays an important role in running social and other activities through its elected Committee.
There are many ways for you to get involved and serve the College community, mainly through convenorships which offer the chance to serve in the day-to-day life of the community.
You are very strongly encouraged to participate in as many College activities as your interests allow and your studies permit.
Like any close family, the College comes together at meal times.
The most important of these is Formal Dinner (Monday to Thursday), the dress for which includes an academic gown, the outward and visible sign of our membership of an academic community, and which pays tribute to the ‘Oxbridge’ tradition stretching back over 700 years.
Formal Dinners are scenes of great conviviality, conversation and good-humoured banter. They are also the best possible way of getting to know people and finding out what’s going on! It is expected that you attend Formal Dinner as often as practicable unless you have unavoidable commitments such as late lectures, work or sports training (in which case a Late Dinner is provided).
Life at College is full and the College calendar is punctuated by a number of key important events: Academic Dinner, ANZAC Commemoration Dinner, Parents’ Dinners, Jazz Dinner Dance, Formal, Valedictory Dinner, Rawson Cup/Rosebowl/Palladian Cup Victory Dinners and Victoriana!
Participation, co-operation and responsible servant leadership are fundamental to the ethos and effective operation of the College.
Essential to the ideal of a liberal education is the pursuit of intellectual enquiry
beyond your own academic discipline.
St Paul’s exists primarily as an academic community. Paulines are justifiably proud of the College’s academic record, its notable alumni and the distinguished contribution they have made to public life.
To date St Paul’s has produced 29 Rhodes Scholars, three appointees to the High Court bench, two Prime Ministers (Sir William McMahon GCMG CH and Gough Whitlam AC QC) and one Deputy Prime Minister (John Anderson AC).
The College has also produced over 100 University Medallists, 20 in the last decade.
The Weighted Average Mark (WAM) for the undergraduate College currently sits in the mid-70s and over 40% of our students consistently achieve a Distinction or High Distinction average.
The most obvious academic benefit of living in College is being able to discuss your work with like-minded, academically ambitious fellow students on a day-to-day basis.
It is one of the very best ways of clarifying your own understanding of what you are studying. But perhaps the greatest ‘added value’ which Paul’s will offer you in terms of your academic work, is the Tutorial Programme (see following page).
Our College library, and study spaces around College, are additional valuable resources available to residents.
The Senior Tutor monitors the academic progress and results of each student and provides mentoring, advice and support when required.
The Senior Tutor also arranges course-specific talks and seminars. We also have senior students, our Academic Leaders and Assistant Senior Tutors, dedicated to helping students in particular subject areas and linking them with academic support in College.
The College’s Mentoring Programme creates avenues for students, usually in their third year of study, to receive advice and guidance from alumni, parents and other professionals to kick-start and guide a career path.
Essential to the ideal of a liberal education is the pursuit of intellectual enquiry beyond your own academic discipline.
Guest speakers distinguished in their field are regularly invited to speak to students after dinner.
Faculty Dinners are unique opportunities for you to meet academics from the University. But it’s the chance to interact regularly with fellow students which makes College unique.
Those unplanned, impromptu conversations at mealtimes, in the Bar, following guest speakers’ talks – or more likely in your room or corridor – form the stuff of everyday College life.
Good conversation – curious, open-minded, and generous – is at the heart of our living and growing together.
There is no better way of formulating your own perspectives on the world and your place within it.
The Rawson Cup (for intercollegiate men’s sport) and Rosebowl (for intercollegiate women’s sport) are both fiercely contested.
Paul’s is renowned for its sporting prowess and the large attendance and enthusiastic support given by its members at fixtures. Internal social matches – including the time-honoured tradition of ‘Tip’ (touch football) before Formal Dinner – also take place.
Outreach activities are opportunities for students to give back by engaging directly with those in need beyond these walls and fundraising. A significant number of Paulines feed and care for the homeless through the agencies such as the Cana Foundation and raise money for ‘FundsFest’ which supports causes such as drought relief.
Entrepreneurship initiatives launched by Paulines in recent years include AIME, a mentoring program for marginalised Indigenous youth and ‘threeorfourfive’, a pre-tertiary mentoring programme for Year 12 students.
The Palladian Cup for intercollegiate competition in cultural and artistic pursuits, dates from the 1990s. You are encouraged to audition to represent the College in the Oration, Solo Vocal, Solo Instrumental, Solo Drama, Dance, Debating, Vocal Ensemble, Art, Instrumental Ensemble and Drama Ensemble competitions.
Entrepreneurship initiatives launched by Paulines in recent years include AIME, a mentoring program for marginalised Indigenous youth and ‘threeorfourfive’, a pre-tertiary mentoring programme for Year 12 students.
Mummers is the St Paul’s College dramatic society. Founded in 1948, it has a proud history of staging high calibre dramatic productions each year. It equally attracts students with acting experience, and those with none! Debates are organised between current students and neighbouring colleges, alumni or members of Graduate House. Mooting has also become popular.
Music has long occupied an important place in the life of the College. Singers and instrumentalists perform throughout the year at dinners, in the Bar, in the Palladian Cup competition, and in the long-running music hall-style production of Victoriana!
Singing by all students at celebratory events is both stirring and emblematic of the spirit of the College!
The Chapel Choir, conducted by the Director of Music and accompanied by the College Organist, performs traditional and modern repertoire to the highest standards. Its principal role is to sing Choral Evensong each Tuesday evening and at other significant chapel services such as the ANZAC Day service and the Carol Service. The Choir has also presented operas and recitals at the College and toured regional NSW and the ACT.
Recently, the choir has sung at services or given recitals in churches in the UK and France, including Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, St Eustache and La Madeleine.
