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History

Commerce Building University of Otago

The University of Otago was established in 1869 by an ordinance of the Otago Provincial Council and is New Zealand's oldest University. However teaching in accounting and other commerce subjects did not start until 1912.

The Faculty of Commerce and Law was first established with Professor H D Bedford as Dean. In October of 1920 the Council approved the separation of Commerce and Law and the establishment of a separate Faculty of Commerce and appointed Mr G W Reid as its first Dean. The Faculty was disestablished by Council in 1989 and replaced with the Division of Commerce headed by Professor Lyall McLean as its first Assistant Vice-Chancellor.

The School of Business was formed in August 2000 as part of the internationalisation focus of the Division of Commerce headed by Professor David Buisson who retired at the end of 2005. Professor Alan MacGregor became Dean of the School and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Commerce) in January 2006. Following Professor MacGregor's retirement in December 2006, the School is now lead by Professor George Benwell.

Since its early beginnings when the Faculty of Commerce only offered accounting as a subject of study, the School of Business now offers a range of programmes in business administration, business law, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, health informatics, information science, international business, management, marketing management, quantitative analysis and tourism.