One hundred and eighth annual commencement of the University of Melbourne (Graduation program)

Historical Significance: This is the program for a graduation ceremony held in the afternoon of March 20 1963, presided over by the Deputy Chancellor Sir William Upjohn OBE, MD, MS, FRCS, FRACS at which seven optometrists were admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Applied Science (Optometry). Three were graduands who had completed the then new optometry course of the University in 1962, namely Anthony John Adams, Ian Laurence Bailey and Donald Edward Mitchell. Two of their compatriots who had qualified in the same year, Stanley Elwood and Peter Skeates, did not graduate at this ceremony. There were four optometrists who were also admitted to the degree of BAppSc at this graduation ceremony. They had qualified in optometry earlier by completing the four-year diploma course of the Australian College of Optometry that led to the Licentiate of Optometric Science (LOSc) and had completed in 1962 a conversion course of studies to qualify for the BAppSc degree. They were Bruce Kelvin Besley (LOSc 1951), William Albert Cooper (LOSc 1950), Wolfgang Franz Gartner (LOSc 1955) and Edward John Vines (LOSc 1950). The LOSc course of the Australian College of Optometry was established in 1941 and half of the course was taught in the University of Melbourne including several subjects of the Universities BSc subjects. The LOSc course became a degree course of the University in 1961 with all current LOSc students at the time being given full credit for their LOSc studies. The first of the current students to graduate BAppSc was Gavin Bridgman who graduated in 1962. Adams, Bailey and Mitchell were the second cohort to graduate. These three, remarkably, pursued distinguished academic careers all reaching the rank of professor and achieving international distinction for their research and their other professional achievements.