Students watching recorded lectures is par for the course these days. But did you know that the University started recording lectures in the 1960s? The uni made this move to help teachers deliver content to the increasingly large classes enrolling in science from the mid-1960s onward (although, it didn’t last long in this format).
By 1965, the University formally established a television service. It captured a range of events at the uni on tape as well as instructional videos about life at uni from c1960-c1990. Some of these videos are available via the University of Sydney Archives online collection. You can see what it was like at the Spring Open Weekend in 1992.
Or you can watch So You’ve Decided to do Medicine? You’ll see med students in class, on rounds at the hospital and discussing what it’s like to study medicine at Sydney way back in 1982!
The videos provide fascinating insight into life at the University, allowing us to see and hear what the campus was like decades ago. They also provide a snapshot of social fashions and technology from late twentieth century Australia.
