Dental School Joint Committee

After the passing of the NSW Dental Act in 1900 Anderson Stuart proposed to Senate that the University take action to establish a Dental School as soon as possible. Senate instructed its Dental School Committee to take the necessary steps to ensure the commencement of the dental curriculum in March 1901.  

A Board of Dental Studies was constituted in University By-Laws Chapter XXVIII. It was the Board’s responsibility to consider and report to the Senate on subjects relating to the Studies, Lectures and Examinations in Dentistry, and on questions referred to it by the Senate. Anderson Stuart proposed a conjoint Board of representatives of the University and Sydney Hospital to supervise/develop the dental curriculum. The Joint Committee was appointed by Senate and Sydney Hospital. 

Students of the Dental School were to receive their instruction in subjects such as Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy, and Surgery in the lecture rooms and laboratories of the University, while the practical instruction, both operative and mechanical, were to be given at the Sydney Hospital by Lecturers in Mechanical and Surgical Dentistry and a Mechanical Instructor, appointed by the University. The Lecturers also were to be Honorary Dental Surgeons of the Sydney Hospital, the wards of the Out-patients Department of which would supply a sufficient field to enable the students to obtain a thorough practical acquaintance with their profession.

The general arrangements of the school, including the appointment of Lecturers in Practical Dental subjects, were to be under the supervision of a Joint Committee of the Senate of the University and the Directors of the Sydney Hospital. [Senate Report for 1900 in 1901 University Calendar]

Early in 1901 the authorities of the Sydney Hospital informed the Senate that due to the limited space at their disposal it would be impossible to erect a suitable building for the Dental Hospital and School of Dentistry on the Hospital grounds and expressed the wish of the Board to sever its connection with the proposed school. Therefore, the University established an independent hospital for the treatment of poor patients, in which the students who had already entered upon the curriculum could obtain experience and hospital practice in Surgical Dentistry. Two large rooms were rented in premises at the corner of George and Bathurst Streets, where the work of the school and hospital was carried on. [Senate Report for 1901 in 1902 Calendar]