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The College has had a spectacular start to the new academic year – with over 30 more students than last semester, a hugely positive Welcome Week, and great momentum from the strong academic, sporting and other student achievements last year.

The strong enrolments – both of returning and of new students – have meant that Hawker Annex, which had not been used since 2018, has been refurbished and reopened, and is now happily full.

Our newly-expanded carpark is also full. The College remains extremely grateful to Honorary Fellow Ian Wall AM and Pamela Wall OAM for their extraordinarily generous donation to enable the significant expansion of the College’s multi-storey carpark. This has enabled a clear majority of students to park securely in College for the first time.

To help make new and returning students welcome, our impressive team of student leaders and College staff worked together to develop a programme of activities for Welcome Week and for the whole year.

Welcome events began on 18 February with our annual Admission Ceremony for new students, attended by many parents. This included a Welcome to Country by Uncle Rod O’Brien, Kaurna Elder, and a Smoking Ceremony by Uncle Micky O’Brien, senior Kaurna man.

New students and parents were warmly welcomed by the Head of College, Professor Don Markwell, and the President of the College Club, Ms Sophie Ludbrook. A link to the Head of College’s speech of welcome can be found here.

Each new student also signed the College Roll of Members – the same book that new members of the College have signed since 1925.

Over the course of Welcome Week, students took part in College training, university orientation, and diverse social activities, many on the College Club Committee’s theme for the week of Greek gods. These activities have aimed to make new students welcome and ready for College and university, and to welcome returning students back to College with renewed energy and vigour.

Amongst much else, new students were introduced to the academic and wellbeing support which the College offers. We are delighted that this semester this includes support for students on career development from graduate careers expert (and former College Club President), Jeff Duncan (St Mark’s 2005-08), who has come into residence for the semester.

A very enjoyable Welcome Week concluded with a beautiful Commencement Service in St Peter’s Cathedral and a delightful Commencement Dinner on the tennis courts, marking the start of the 2021 academic year – and with a relaxed day of tennis with Old Collegians.

During the Commencement Service, which included readings and musical performances by students, the Chaplain (the Revd Grant Moore) spoke on the life-long pursuit of wisdom, and the Head of College (Professor Don Markwell) spoke on the importance of the College’s values, and of gratitude. A link to the Head of College’s address can be found here. (We regret that, because of COVID restrictions, we were not able to invite guests to the Commencement Service this year.)

Very moving expressions of gratitude have come in the form of letters of thanks which students are writing to the donors of their scholarships. Over 100 students in 2021 have been able to come into residence or stay in residence at St Mark’s owing to scholarships, prizes, bursaries and other forms of financial assistance. Many of these students have already written thank-you letters to donors, and more of these letters will reach donors in coming weeks.

It is clear from these thank-you letters that such scholarships transform the lives of students. We sincerely thank all donors for helping to create such life-changing opportunities.

With Welcome Week concluded, university classes have now started, and the College’s tutorial programme is about to commence. Inter-collegiate sport begins on Sunday with tennis, followed soon after with swimming. The College Club’s Annual General Meeting has been held, and formal hall has resumed. All the signs point to a great year ahead.

Congratulations to all students and staff on a stellar start to 2021!

This exciting start to the year builds on exceptional student successes in 2020, when outstanding academic results included over half our marks being High Distinctions or Distinctions, the College won the Douglas-Irving Cup (also known as the High Table Cup) for inter-collegiate sport, and our students showed impressive commitment to community service through the Charitable Foundation and in other ways.

An overview of 2020 can be found here. It is a superb foundation on which to build for the year ahead.

Photography: Kaidy Morgan @kd_m_p

Warmest congratulations to two Old Collegians – Dr Ken Fitch and Mr Ken Allen – on being made Officers of the Order of Australia (AO) in the recent Australian honours list.

Both Ken Fitch (St Mark’s 1951-55) and Ken Allen (St Mark’s 1960-61) had previously been made Members of the Order of Australia – Ken Fitch as long ago as 1979, and Ken Allen in 2005 – and their subsequent outstanding contributions have now been recognised with this significant higher honour.

When congratulated by the Head of College (Professor Don Markwell) on their awards, both reflected warmly on their years at St Mark’s, how much the College contributed to their subsequent lives and careers, and their continuing fondness for the College.

Dr Kenneth Fitch AO, who lives in Perth, was a resident student at St Mark’s while studying medicine at the University of Adelaide. He was secretary of the College Club and won the Collegians’ Prize in 1954, and played football at College, University, and State levels, and competed in athletics for the College and the University.

Over subsequent decades, Ken Fitch has played a leading role in sports medicine – in Western Australia, nationally, and internationally – growing out of his work as a medical practitioner who was interested in sports and soft tissue injuries, and who started running swimming classes for asthma sufferers. His contribution – including through work for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other Olympic and Commonwealth Games bodies, the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) and Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), and in many other ways – is truly exceptional.

Starting as a team doctor for the Australian team at the Olympics in Munich in 1972, through to serving with the IOC Medical Commission at the 2012 Olympics in London, Ken Fitch served at 18 Olympic games – summer and winter – in various roles for the IOC and the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC). He was President of the International Association of Olympic Medical Officers from 1989 to 1992, and medical consultant to the Organising Committee for the Sydney Olympic Games from 1994 to 2000.

Ken has served on national and international bodies on anti-doping, such as the IOC’s committee on prohibited substances and prohibited methods, and is recognised as a world leader in this field. He chaired ASADA’s Medical Advisory Committee for 15 years (1999-2014), and was deputy chair of WADA’s Health, Medical and Research Committee from 2001 to 2005.

Amongst many other positions he has held with distinction, Ken served on the IOC’s Medical Commission for 27 years (1985-2012), chaired the AOC’s Medical Commission (1985-97, acting chair 2012-13), and chaired the Medical Commission for the Oceania National Olympic Committees for 25 years (1984-2009).

He has been active in Sports Medicine Australia, and with the Australian Institute of Sport, amongst many other bodies, and served as medical coordinator and team physician for the West Coast Eagles from 1986 to 2001.

Ken has also written extensively on sports medicine, and has contributed greatly to medical education, including in his continuing role as an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia since 1993.

A fuller account of Ken Fitch’s remarkable lifetime of service to sports medicine can be found here

It is very fitting that Ken Fitch has been recognised as an Officer of the Order of Australia “for distinguished service to sports medicine at the national and international level through a range of roles, and to medical education”.

Ken Fitch said of his time at St Mark’s: “Although I left St Mark’s in 1955, I have very fond memories of my five years there. Sadly, too many of my contemporaries including my best College mates are no longer with us. To this day, I remain grateful that WA did not have a medical school and that I had to leave WA to study medicine.

“I will be forever grateful to my father who generously booked me into and funded my time at St Mark’s, for the College’s major role in my social and general ‘education and development’ and how my five years there enhanced my subsequent life.

“Finally, like other West Aussies, I am deeply indebted to the Adelaide medical school for an excellent undergraduate medical education.”

Mr Kenneth Allen AO, who lives in Sydney, was a resident student at St Mark’s in 1960-61 while studying for a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) at the University of Adelaide. Amongst other contributions to College life, he played football and squash for St Mark’s, and football for the University.

Ken has subsequently had a long and distinguished career in business and finance, and served as Australia’s Consul-General in New York (2001-05). Amongst many other notable achievements, he pioneered and led the development of Advance, a professional network for Australians living and working around the world. Advance works to bring skills and knowledge gained overseas to the benefit of Australia.

Ken’s career in business and finance took him from being marketing manager for Unilever Australia in the 1960s, to serving as a senior project officer at the World Bank in 1974-79, to being chairman and managing director of Merrill Lynch (Australia) in the 1980s, and several subsequent senior financial positions, especially investment banking and capital advisory roles.

These roles include serving currently as chairman of Allen Partners and until recently as senior adviser to Lexington Partners in New York. His many directorships have ranged from Australia Post to the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

It was from the position of senior director at Macquarie Bank (1999-2001) that Ken Allen was appointed as Australia’s Consul-General in New York.

While serving in New York, Ken led the development of the Young Australian Professionals in America network, out of which the wider Advance global network grew under his leadership. With 17,000 community members across 83 countries, its many activities to recognise and connect Australian expatriates, and to bring their skills to Australia’s benefit, include the Advance Global Australian Awards and the Advance Global Australian Summit.

In 2005, Ken Allen was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) “for service to the business and finance sectors, to international relations as Consul-General in New York, and to the community through fundraising for charitable organisations”.

We are delighted that his leadership and service with Advance and in other ways have now been recognised with an AO “for distinguished service to international relations, particularly through global information sharing networks for expatriate Australian professionals”.

There are further details of Ken Allen’s outstanding contributions here

When congratulated by the College on his award, Ken Allen said: “It’s been a fun journey and no greater time than my time spent at St Marks.

“Those years at College are amongst my fondest memories as it was a real bridge into the real world.

“The College does great things for those fortunate enough to enjoy the experience.”

Professor Markwell said: “It is so good to see outstanding local, national, and international contributions by St Mark’s alumni acknowledged with these awards.

“On behalf of the entire St Mark’s community, I warmly congratulate both Ken Fitch and Ken Allen on this richly-merited recognition of their service.”

Photos: (Left) Ken Fitch taking part in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Torch Relay in Subiaco, WA. (Right) Ken Allen sailing on the Pittwater in the Woody Point Summer Series Regatta in Sydney, NSW.

3 February 2021

The year that COVID came crashing into our lives is one that we will remember for a host of reasons. 2020 was extraordinary in many ways – but, from a St Mark’s perspective, perhaps one of the most remarkable things about it was how stunningly well our students performed academically, despite the year’s profound challenges and disruptions.

We achieved the best set of results in the College’s recent history, with 26.7% of all results being High Distinctions and 27.3% being Distinctions – meaning that over half of all grades that our students received were in these top two brackets. Our first-year students in particular performed impressively, with just shy of 60% of their grades being Distinctions or High Distinctions.

This would be a stellar achievement in any year, but for it to be accomplished in the year that degree courses lurched online – meaning our students had to adapt not only to new ways of living, working, and socialising, but also to new ways of learning – makes it even more noteworthy, and a testament to the resilience, tenacity, and sheer hard work of our Markswomen and Marksmen.

There were many individual standout performances: an exceptional 8 of our students achieved a clean sweep of 8 High Distinctions; a further 12 students were awarded 7 High Distinctions.

Among the many students who received College Prizes and Scholarships in recognition of their academic excellence we should note our very top performers. Our highest academic honour, the Edward A. Radcliff Scholarship, was awarded to Grace Whyte, a first-year student studying a Bachelor of Health and Medical Sciences; Grace was also the recipient of the Sir Ronald Fisher Medal for the top Science student. Kate Whyte (Bachelor of Science (Advanced)) and Gemma Nunn (Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences) also acquitted themselves superbly, and were each awarded a G. Angas Parsons Scholarship. Many congratulations!

As well as applauding our students for their hard-won successes, we must thank those who have provided such tremendous support to our Academic Program, in particular our Academic Team and our Tutors. Their energy, expertise and encouragement have had an enormously positive impact on this year’s individual and collective academic successes. Thank you to you all!

All of this has been achieved in the first year since Dr Rachel Buxton (Hawker Scholar at St Mark’s, 1993-97; College Club President, 1997; Rhodes Scholar for South Australia, 1998) has returned to St Mark’s as Director of Learning. It has been terrific to have her leading the College’s Academic Program, and we are deeply grateful to her for the support she gives our students.

Our Academic Program is one of the things that sets St Mark’s apart: it gives new and returning students the support and inspiration to excel in their learning, and establishes a strong foundation to enhance their career prospects. We are excited to build on this in the coming year, as we work with our new Academic Team, appoint a new slate of Tutors, and expand our calendar of academic, faculty, and career events.

2020 saw the manifestation of our College motto – ‘Spernit Virtus Humum’, or ‘Excellence reaches for the stars’. We are eager to see what 2021 will bring.

St Mark’s College was officially opened on 15 March 1925, and will celebrate its centenary in 2025.

On 7 September 1920, the first step was taken to create St Mark’s College – a resolution in the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide appointing a committee to consider establishing a college for students of the University of Adelaide. The centenary of this resolution was marked by the College on 7 September 2020.

Documents produced for this initial committee and successor founding committees may be found below. They reflect the noble and ambitious vision of the College’s founders.

The movement in the 1920s to create an Anglican residential college affiliated to the University of Adelaide (which was hoped to be the forerunner of a wider college system in Adelaide) was led by people most of whom had studied at the great collegiate universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or had been students at the leading university residential colleges in Melbourne (especially Trinity College at the University of Melbourne) or Sydney (especially St Paul’s College at the University of Sydney). They believed very strongly in the benefits of collegiate education.

The goal is summed up in one of the founders’ documents this way:

St Mark’s College is founded as a Church of England College affiliated to the University of Adelaide, to assist in the advancement of sound learning and education and the formation of high character, where students of the University of Adelaide may reside, and receive tuition and supervision in all branches of University work.

Amongst the many aspects that stand out in these and other documents are

• the strong focus of the founders on promoting ideals of service, as well as, of course, on academic tuition, sporting and other extra-curricular opportunity, and other benefits of college life, and
• the reliance on philanthropy, without which the College could not have come into being (or survived, let alone prospered).

Although various of the founders were very conscious of the importance of women’s university education, and St Mark’s later played an important role in the founding of a college for women (St Ann’s College), these documents refer to St Mark’s being founded as a college for male students. In 1982, St Mark’s became coeducational – and in 2022 will celebrate the 40th anniversary of that landmark development.

The following documents, which reflect the evolution of the founders’ efforts from 1921 to 1924, are:

• a document written by the Revd (later Canon) Julian Bickersteth MC, then Headmaster of St Peter’s College, in 1921, for the committee appointed by the Anglican Synod on 7 September 1920 – here
• “Suggested Foundation of University Residential College” – here
• “Foundation of University Residential College (Church of England) to be affiliated to the University of Adelaide and to be known as St Mark’s College, Adelaide” – here
• “Preliminary Prospectus and Entry Form” – here

Among the many founders of the College were –

Canon Julian Bickersteth MC

Sir Henry Newland DSO

Charles A. S. Hawker MP

Mr Dudley Turner

Sir Archibald Grenfell Price, who became the first Master of the College

Further details of the history of St Mark’s College can be found here

Through the great generosity of his family, a significant scholarship for a St Mark’s student whose studies have a strong international focus has been created in memory of Robin Ashwin, a former Master of the College, who passed away last year.

Robin Ashwin (1930-2019) served as Master of St Mark’s College from 1991 to 1999, after a distinguished career as an Australian diplomat with a strong commitment to the necessity and value of increased international understanding and cooperation.

The Robin Ashwin Scholarship is for an excellent student whose studies have a strong international focus, and who is in financial need. The strong international focus could be, but does not need to be, in the study of international relations or international politics; it could be in any relevant field or fields of study, such as, for example, health, economics, history, law, development studies, or other fields.

Starting with an award for 2021, it is intended for the Scholarship (which may be shared) to be awarded each year in which there is a suitable recipient. It is valued at $10,000 a year (so covering nearly half the College’s annual fees).

The Robin Ashwin Scholarship is a very significant addition to the College’s capacity to enable excellent students to gain the benefits of living and learning at St Mark’s – benefits to which Robin Ashwin contributed enormously in his time as Master of St Mark’s College, and in his retirement (including as a generous donor to the College Library).

Born in Adelaide in 1930, Charles Robin Ashwin graduated from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1951, and went on to read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at New College, Oxford, as the Rhodes Scholar for South Australia for 1952.

Robin joined the Australian Department of External Affairs (now the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) in 1955. His first of many international postings, from 1956 to 1958, was to represent Australia at the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea, which had been established during the Korean War.

While in Seoul, Robin met Okche Chon, whom he married in 1959, and with whom he had a son, Kim, and a daughter, Mulan.

Over the subsequent three decades, Robin served a number of times in Canberra and in diplomatic postings around the world, in increasingly senior roles – London (1960-61), Bonn (1962-63), Bangkok (1968-70), at the United Nations in New York (1971-73), and then as Ambassador to Egypt and Sudan (1975-78), to West Germany from 1982, and to the Soviet Union and Mongolia from 1988 – before coming to St Mark’s in 1991.

Robin’s diplomatic career thus spanned the period from the aftermath of the Korean War to the end of the Cold War as the Soviet empire collapsed after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

After Robin’s death in 2019, an obituary recorded that “after retiring from the diplomatic service, Robin continued to put” the qualities that had made him so successful in international affairs “to good use notably as Master of St Mark’s College in Adelaide, where he helped students make the most of their university years during the 1990s”.

When Robin retired from St Mark’s at the end of 1999, the College Club President, Andrew Ettridge, wrote of Robin and Okche Ashwin’s “profound influence on the College community”, and that “for nine years they dedicated their heart and soul to the College”. The editors of The Lion, Clare Inglis and Jess Roediger, wrote that “1999 will go down in St Mark’s history as Master Robin Ashwin’s final year at college; his guiding wisdom will be greatly missed in the future”.

Robin and Okche are very warmly and gratefully remembered at St Mark’s, and it is very fitting that Robin’s memory should be honoured here with the Robin Ashwin Scholarship, which will help future students make the most of their university years at St Mark’s, and will promote the international focus that was so important to him.

The College is profoundly grateful to Okche Ashwin and her family for their support to our students in this way – and also for their recent donation of several hundred books to the College Library. These books reflect many of Robin’s areas of interest – including Australian politics, Russia and the Baltic, World War I, and much else, both non-fiction and fiction.

Robin had himself donated several hundred books to the College over many years, and continued to take a lively and kindly interest in the College and the Library long after he had retired as Master in 1999.

St Mark’s College is greatly indebted to Robin and to Okche Ashwin, and to their family, for this and for so much more. Robin’s influence lives on at St Mark’s, including now through the Robin Ashwin Scholarship.

• Details of College scholarships are here. All returning students who apply for scholarships are considered for all scholarships. Applications from new students for scholarships close on 20 January 2021.

Photo above: Kim, Okche, Robin, and Mulan Ashwin, 1997.

Robin speaking at his farewell and portrait unveiling, December 1999.

Robin and Okche with Betty and Bob Lewis at the Inaugural 50 Year Club Reunion, 1998.

Robin speaking at Gough Whitlam’s ‘Port & Talk’, April 1997.

Robin and Okche at the unveiling of Robin’s portrait, 1999.

Robin and Okche with Charles Hawker (left) and Alice and Brian Lange at Robin’s farewell, 1999.

Robin and Okche at the College Ball, 2000.

Robin speaking at an alumni & friends reunion, 1999.

Robin with Betty Lewis, 1998.

Robin’s official portrait by Bill Leak which hangs in the College Dining Hall.

Robin and Okche at the College Ball in 2000.

Okche with Don Markwell and Angela Bannon after the Commencement Service, February 2020.