Excelsia College, formerly Wesley Institute, is a

tertiary education Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univer ...

provider in Sydney, Australia, offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in counselling, creative and performing arts, education, social work and business.

History

The college was founded in 1983 by David Johnston as a part of the

Sydney Christian Life Centre Christian Life Centre (commonly abbreviated to CLC) is or was a name given to a number of Pentecostal churches in Australia, many of them affiliated with the Australian Christian Churches (formerly Assemblies of God, or AOG) network. ''Hills Chri ...

(founded by

Frank Houston William Francis "Frank" Houston (22 April 1922 – 8 November 2004) was a Pentecostal Christian pastor in the Assemblies of God in New Zealand and Australia. Frank Houston founded Sydney Christian Life Centre, which would eventually come unde ...

in 1977PDF
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/ref>). Located at Arncliffe, the college was known at the time as the "International Institute for Creative Ministries" (IICM), the curriculum's focus was the

creative arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both h ...

and students' work in the

performing A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

and

visual arts The visual arts are Art#Forms, genres, media, and styles, art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as ...

included secular as well as religious themes.

1990s split

In 1989 Johnston parted ways with IICM, bringing the organisation under the auspices of

Wesley Mission Wesley Mission is a name used by three independent Uniting Church groups which are a part of the Uniting Missions Network of UnitingCare Australia. These predominantly grew out of inner city ''Central Methodist Missions'' of the Methodist Church ...

and the college moved to the Wesley Centre in

Pitt Street, Sydney Pitt Street is a major street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Waterloo, although today's street is in two disjointed sec ...

, and after a few name changes became Wesley Institute. The qualifications issued were Advanced Ministry Certificate, Diploma in Creative Ministries, Diploma in Ministry and Diploma in Missiology, and during this time many of the students came from overseas. In 1990, in a split from the Wesleyan college, Robert Fergusson became principal at the Sydney location and switched the focus to practical ministry training. Classes, at this time accommodating around 50-70 students, were moved back to the church site and the name changed to Aquila College of Ministries in 1993. In 1999,

Hills Christian Life Centre Hillsong Church, commonly known as Hillsong, is a global charismatic Christian megachurch based in Australia. The original church was established in 1983 as Hills Christian Life Centre, in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, by Brian Houston ...

merged with Sydney Christian Life Centre, referred to as its "parent church" (Hills being founded by Frank Houston's son, Brian Houston) and changed its name to

Hillsong Church Hillsong Church, commonly known as Hillsong, is a global charismatic Christian megachurch based in Australia. The original church was established in 1983 as Hills Christian Life Centre, in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, by Brian Houston and ...

. In 2000 the College merged with

Hillsong International Leadership College Hillsong Church, commonly known as Hillsong, is a global charismatic Christian megachurch based in Australia. The original church was established in 1983 as Hills Christian Life Centre, in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, by Brian Houston and ...

, becoming its "City campus", with Duncan Corby appointed Principal. Government accreditation was granted to Wesley Institute in 1992, allowing students to be paid

Abstudy ABSTUDY is an Australian Government program that gives financial assistance to Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who ar ...

and Austudy support payments.

Move to Drummoyne and expansion

Under the supervision of then Wesley Mission Superintendent

Gordon Moyes Gordon Keith Mackenzie Moyes AC (17 November 1938 – 5 April 2015) was an Australian Christian evangelist, broadcaster and politician. From 2002 to 2011, he was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, initially representing the Ch ...

, Wesley Institute moved to

Drummoyne Drummoyne is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Drummoyne is six kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative center for the local government area of the Ci ...

location in October 1994, transforming the old Drummoyne Boys School into a fully-equipped campus for tertiary education. In 1996 it became part of the

Sydney College of Divinity The Sydney College of Divinity (SCD) is a consortium of Christian theological educational institutions and Bible colleges based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The college is structured as a federation of member institutions, each of whic ...

(SCD), the college expanded and in its

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

and doctorate degrees were accredited in 1999 and 2001 respectively. The college was incorporated as Wesley College in 2005 and opened a second campus on

in 2006 for teaching in

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

. It withdrew from the SCD and in 2007 was given accreditation for a number of degrees in its own right. On 4 October 2013, the Board of Trustees for

Indiana Wesleyan University Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) is a Private university, private evangelical Christian university headquartered in Marion, Indiana, and affiliated with the Wesleyan Church. It is the largest private university in Indiana. The university system ...

voted to acquire Wesley Institute, to create the IWU's first international campus.

Present name and location

In early 2015 Wesley Institute changed its name to Excelsia College. In 2016, the college relocated to

Macquarie Park, New South Wales Macquarie Park () is a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Macquarie Park is located 13 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Ryde. ...

.Steven Deare, (16 February 2016), Excelsia College, formerly Wesley Institute, opens at Macquarie Park, ''Northern District Times''
Retrieved 11 March 2016

People

Faculty included

Grenville Kent Grenville J. R. Kent (born 1965) is an Australian academic, film producer, author, and Christian communicator. He is the producer of ''Big Questions'', a forthcoming documentary series examining faith, and the "10 Questions for God" series of boo ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Australian tertiary institutions Performing arts education in Australia Uniting Church in Australia Council for Christian Colleges and Universities Macquarie Park, New South Wales