Notre Dame Sydney opens above target student numbers

Nearly 450 students will commence studies today at Sydney’s new University, the University of Notre Dame Australia. Students will study across six main Schools: Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Law, Nursing, and Philosophy and Theology at the rejuvenated and centrally located campus at Broadway. Popular courses include primary teaching, nursing, arts, marketing and public relations, and double degrees in arts/business and law/arts. Notre Dame, a private Catholic university, hails from Western Australia, where it has developed impressive campuses at Fremantle and Broome over the past 15 years. The University has a current enrolment of 5,000 students in Western Australia and aims to match this number in Sydney over the next decade. On the Broadway Campus, Notre Dame has transformed a mainly disused site to its rightful position, historically, culturally and as a` significant Sydney city landmark. University spokesman, Damian Gleeson, says the former parish and school buildings and presbytery have been sensitively and beautifully restored to form an exquisite Campus. ‘A core part of the redevelopment is a major facelift to St Benedict’s Church. The first church on the site, built in 1838, serviced the then predominantly Irish colonial community. The historic church – once one of Sydney’s largest parishes – will be reopened this weekend to serve peoples from a wide range of nationalities and inner-city students in what is now a university precinct. ‘St Benedict’s is also noteworthy for being the parish church of the late Cardinal Gilroy and several generations of his family.