alumnus, and Sir Charles Nicholson, a University of Edinburgh Medical School alumnus, proposed a plan to expand the existing Sydney College into a university. Wentworth argued that it would provide the opportunity for "the child of every class, to become great and useful in the destinies of his country" and that a state secular university was imperative for a society aspiring towards self-government.

So far from being an institution for the rich, I take It to be an institution for the poor. ... I trust that, from the pregnant womb of this institution will arise a long list of illustrious names--of statesmen--of patriots--of philanthropists--of philosophers--of poets and of heroes, who will shed a deathless halo, not only on their country, but upon the University which called them into being.