Faculty of Agriculture and Environment

In 1918 a proposal went to the Professorial Board for the establishment of a new faculty, the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. This motion prompted the Board to refer the matter to a Committee who reported back on 9 December 1918 that the then current academic organisation of the University required some modification, in particular the Faculty of Science which was so comprehensive and heterogeneous that it no longer had common ground between all the disciplines which fell under its aegis. The Committee therefore recommended the University organisation be expanded to include 10 faculties, these being: Arts; Law; Medicine; Pure Science; Engineering; Agriculture; Veterinary Science; Dentistry; Economics and Architecture. The report was accepted by the Professorial Board and forwarded to the Senate for consideration. 

On 3 November 1919 the Senate accepted a report from a committee they had created to consider these recommendations and the new faculties were given the go ahead. The By-Law Committee was instructed to draft amendments to the By-Laws assisted by a report which had been adopted by the Professorial Board and  which outlined the constitutions for the new faculties. In 1920 new By-Laws established the faculties under Chap IX, the constitution of and details about the Faculty of Agriculture are outlined in Chap VXII,1-13.

CHAPTER IX.—THE FACULTIES 

There shall be ten Faculties in the University, viz :—(1) Arts. (2) Law. (3) Medicine. (4) Science. (5) Engineering. (6) Dentistry. (7) Veterinary Science. (8) Agriculture. (9) Economics. (10) Architecture. 

2.—Each Faculty shall, under the Senate— (1) Have the general direction and supervision of the teaching in the subjects pertaining to the Faculty ; (2) be responsible, with the assistance of such examiners as the Senate may on the report of the Faculty, from time to time appoint, for the conduct of the annual examinations in those subjects ; and (3) consider and report upon all matters relating to the studies, lectures, examinations and degrees of the Faculty, or referred to it by the Senate.

CHAPTER XVII.—FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE

1.—The Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, the Warden, the Professor of Agriculture, the Professors of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Geology, Veterinary Science, and the Lecturers and Demonstrators in the professional subjects prescribed for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Agriculture shall constitute the Faculty of Agriculture. 

2.—There shall be a degree granted in the Faculty of Agriculture, viz., Bachelor of Science in Agriculture.

Professor Watt was the first Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture; he was widely acknowledged for building up the Faculty from scratch; upon his retirement in 1946, he was succeeded by J R A McMillan under whose direction the Faculty developed considerably.

The curriculum was expanded to include a range of specialised agricultural disciplines and McMillan obtained funding from the world of commerce and industry to develop facilities to teach these courses including facilities for teaching and research in animal science at the Camden campus from the 1950's; the establishment of the I A Watson Grains Research Centre at Narrabri in 1959 and a new Research Centre was built at Cobbitty to house the Plant Breeding Institute in 1991.

This diversification within the Faculty led to the establishment of departments to accommodate the subjects. In 1965 the departments of Agricultural Botany, Agricultural Chemistry, Soil Science, Agricultural Microbiology and Agronomy were added to the existing departments of Animal Husbandry.

McMillan retired in 1966 during a decade concerned with the problems of teaching agriculture at schools and of training teachers of agriculture. The curriculum was kept under constant review and in 1972 an Master of Agriculture degree was created in response to increases in post graduate enrolments. By 1980 fifteen graduate diplomas were offered by the Faculty.

The discipline continued to expand throughout the 1980s and in 1983 a further degree, the Bachelor of Agricultural Economics was established. A swathe of retirements and the appointments of new staff prompted major changes to the Faculty with the departments of Agronomy and Horticultural Science (previously known as the Department of Agronomy and renamed June 1973 (See Senate Minutes July 1973)), Agricultural Genetics and Biometry and Soil Science merging to form the new School of Crop Sciences, on 1 September 1987, creating a School as large as some University faculties.

The curriculum of the Department of Agricultural Economics was also redesigned as was that of the Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree, the Bachelor of Horticultural Science was introduced in 1996 followed by the Bachelor of Resource Economics in 2000 and the Bachelor of Animal Science in 2002.

The Faculty of Agriculture was re-structured in 2002 and renamed Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. It comprised of the School of Land, Water and Crop Sciences (which includes the Plant Breeding institute) and the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Senate at its meeting of 19 March 2012 changed the name of the Faculty to Agriculture and Environment with immediate effect. [Resolution 43/12]  Dean Professor Mark Adams spoke about the reasons behind the change: 

“Our new name reflects our focus and strength in agricultural and environmental research. Our research and teaching exists in an international environment and our new name is well-placed to harness that. We wanted to make a change, particularly to highlight our diverse degree programs and to be more attractive and relevant to potential students." 

As part of the University's strategic planning 2016-2020, Senate decided in December 2015 to reduce the number of faculties from 16 to six, with three additional schools reporting directly to the Provost, to come into effect 1 January 2017. In response to staff consultations the University worked on a Change proposal throughout 2016 and issued a Final Change Plan in December 2016. The Faculty of Agriculture and Environment was abolished and became the Sydney Institute of Agriculture (SIA) within the Faculty of Science; its official name being the University of Sydney Institute of Agriculture.

SIA did not have an undergraduate education mandate but concentrated on research work and training. A stream of Agriculture was available in the Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Advanced Studies in the Faculty of Science.