Basser College
Encyclopedia
Basser College, University of New South Wales is a residential college
at the University of New South Wales
in Sydney
, Australia
. Basser College and its two neighbouring Colleges, Goldstein and Phillip Baxter, are collectively known as the Kensington Colleges. The College has, during semesters, 132 residents of both sexes and 6 residential academic staff.
The College is designed around two central courtyards - Girls' Quad and Boys' Quad. The names echo the living arrangements in the college after female residents were first admitted in the 1960s, though male and female students live in adjacent rooms nowadays. The majority of the rooms are divided into alcoves of four, with two front rooms and two back rooms. Typically, the back rooms are larger, and are allocated to returning residents, or "seniors", whilst the front rooms are allocated to first-year residents, or "freshers". These alcoves are thus affectionately dubbed "alcove families". In some instances, an alcove may only have two or three residents, as the space where the other room(s) should be may be a dedicated storage space, or a bathroom. Basser College is the only college on Kensington Campus for which every room has the convenience of a basin.
Basser College's facilities and amenities include: a games room, with full-sized billards table and table tennis table; a projector room, computing and printing facilities; communal study areas and two common rooms.
Academic support is available to every resident in College. Not only is academic support available across all three Kensington Colleges to assist in a wide variety of subjects, but senior College residents can help freshers with problems they have encountered in previous years.
A typical resident stays in Basser for two years (four semesters) before moving out with a couple of close friends to a nearby house or apartment. Basser College celebrated its 50th anniversary with a 'Back to Basser' day at the college in August, 2009.
Residential college
A residential college is an organisational pattern for a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship with the overall...
at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Basser College and its two neighbouring Colleges, Goldstein and Phillip Baxter, are collectively known as the Kensington Colleges. The College has, during semesters, 132 residents of both sexes and 6 residential academic staff.
History and campus
Basser College was founded in 1959, ten years after the opening of UNSW, making it the oldest residential college at the University of New South Wales. It was built in response to a need for accommodation to allow students from a rural background to compete on a level field with metropolitan students. The College takes its name from Sir Adolph Basser (1887-1965), a Polish entrepreneur and philanthropist who contributed a significant amount to the cost of the College's construction.The College is designed around two central courtyards - Girls' Quad and Boys' Quad. The names echo the living arrangements in the college after female residents were first admitted in the 1960s, though male and female students live in adjacent rooms nowadays. The majority of the rooms are divided into alcoves of four, with two front rooms and two back rooms. Typically, the back rooms are larger, and are allocated to returning residents, or "seniors", whilst the front rooms are allocated to first-year residents, or "freshers". These alcoves are thus affectionately dubbed "alcove families". In some instances, an alcove may only have two or three residents, as the space where the other room(s) should be may be a dedicated storage space, or a bathroom. Basser College is the only college on Kensington Campus for which every room has the convenience of a basin.
Basser College's facilities and amenities include: a games room, with full-sized billards table and table tennis table; a projector room, computing and printing facilities; communal study areas and two common rooms.
Academic support is available to every resident in College. Not only is academic support available across all three Kensington Colleges to assist in a wide variety of subjects, but senior College residents can help freshers with problems they have encountered in previous years.
A typical resident stays in Basser for two years (four semesters) before moving out with a couple of close friends to a nearby house or apartment. Basser College celebrated its 50th anniversary with a 'Back to Basser' day at the college in August, 2009.