Margaret's Gift: Fifty Years On
Fifty years ago, Bill Ranken asked his mother Margaret Ranken if she would make a significant donation to Burgmann College and Margaret kindly agreed, making a generous Gift to name Bill’s room in the Barassi Wing. Today, Bill reflects on her generosity, his transformative experience at Burgmann, and why he believes young people should have the same opportunity, regardless of what they can afford.
Photographs below, from left (click on image for full view): Bill Ranken, Board Chairman of Open Medicine Foundation Australia, Alum 1975–1977; Director of Advancement Amelia Zaraftis and Bill Ranken, 2025.
Finding his place at Burgmann
Bill’s journey to ANU and Burgmann was not straightforward, shaped in part by loss. Around the time of his Year 12 exams, his father died in a farm accident, and, amid that grief, Bill did not pass his final year, and he carried emotional wounds for some years afterwards. He returned to Geelong Grammar the following year to try again, working and achieving the results that would ultimately bring him to ANU.
Bill initially took up residence at John XXIII, but quickly realised it wasn’t the right fit. The all-male college and its prevailing culture at the time was something he needed to escape. Burgmann, by contrast, felt different from the start. It was welcoming, co-educational and home to a broad mix of people.
It was a place of the heart more than anything else. It was a place for people, notwithstanding all the academic stuff and the fun and the stupidity – bringing people together in a learning community that you'd never imagine otherwise.
Photographs below, courtesy of Judy Middlebrook: Bill Ranken at Burgmann College, 1975–1977.
Bill remembers the College as having a fantastic environment, with something of an Oxbridge quality: not in formality or hierarchy, but in the idea that education extended well beyond the lecture theatre. Academic and pastoral support, and sport and fun, were part of everyday College life. Small tutorial groups encouraged students to learn together, but Bill remembers that much of the learning also happened informally in the bar, through conversation, debate, and simply living alongside people with different interests, backgrounds and ideas.
Integral to the community's success was the notion that students had a genuine stake in college life, with the Burgmann Residents’ Association working collaboratively with college residents and staff rather than a more typical ‘us and them’ divide of a Junior Common Room and a Senior Common Room. ‘There was a community involved in bar debates, in balloon debates, in general meetings where the BRA had a position. ‘One embarrassing meeting I recall occurred after I had a most enjoyable afternoon of African History in the University bar with my lecturer. Returning to Burgmann that evening, I promptly took the Chair at a BRA general meeting. The meeting quickly discerned that I had had a very enjoyable afternoon and voted me out! Most embarrassing.’
We weren't usually treated like dumb undergraduates, even though I certainly knew how to behave like one. Most important, I earned a life changing degree in Arts and made friends for life. Burgmann definitely kick-started my career. I never imagined I would end up working in finance in London, New York City and Melbourne.
A life lesson about honesty
‘One of the most important lessons was when at the end of first year, the University Dean asked me in for a chat. He said they had a problem. They only had half of my year-end exam and had given me 48 out of 50 for what they had. He wondered if I knew what had happened to the other half of my exam? I told him that as I did not know the answers to the second half of the exam paper and so I had not written any answers. I thought I was for the boot. He then taught me a life lesson about honesty. I have never forgotten. He told me in his wonderful Oxbridge accent that he would give me a Credit, and I could do honours next year!’
For Bill, much of the education Burgmann offered came through the people he encountered. He fondly remembers figures such as Deputy Master Robin Bell and Luigi (Rev. Dr Lewis Rushbrook), as well as older Indigenous law student Ben Calcraft, who broadened Bill’s horizons in other ways – including introducing him to fine wine. ‘And so, so many other great friends; far too many to mention, so please accept my sincere apologies.’
Burgmann was also strikingly progressive for its time. Master Trevor Wigney lived openly with his male partner, while the more traditional Sir Edwin Hicks served as Chairman of Council (former Secretary of the Department of Defence) – an unlikely combination that reflected the breadth of people and perspectives within the College. A journalist-in-residence brought lively political debate into everyday college life, and residents found themselves engaging with people and ideas they might otherwise never have encountered.
Photographs below, from left: Rev. Dr Lewis Rushbrook, Former Principal 1995–2005 and Alum 1971; Dr Trevor Wigney, Former Master 1976–1980.
A mother’s generous gift
Towards the end of Bill’s time at Burgmann, residents were invited to consider making a contribution in recognition of their time at College. Bill took the request to his mother. ‘I just casually asked for two thousand dollars, which in those days was a huge amount of money,’ he remembers. ‘And she said yes.’
It was an extraordinarily generous response, particularly given the loss his family had experienced only five years earlier. Looking back, Bill believes his mother’s decision reflected what she had seen Burgmann and ANU give her son. ‘I think she did it to encourage me, and in gratitude for what the College and the University had done for me… I think she was also wanting to support me and wanting to acknowledge that what she'd seen was success out of what could have been and at certain times was a total bloody disaster.’
Fifty years later, the idea behind Bill’s mother’s gift holds true: those who have experienced the value of Burgmann can help make that same opportunity possible for others.
That spirit of giving continues among Burgmann’s residents today. Recently, the Burgmann Residents’ Association chose to contribute $80,000 of accumulated BRA funds back to the College, supporting both the College’s long-term financial future and improvements for future generations of residents.
For Bill, ensuring access to the Burgmann experience is essential.
I think it's so, so important to build up an endowment and create space for people who otherwise couldn't attend, and to encourage diversity.
He is drawn to the idea that financial support need not mean meeting every cost for every student. Instead, it can close the gap that might otherwise prevent a young person from coming to Burgmann at all.
‘Needs-blind doesn't mean you're paying a hundred percent for everyone,’ Bill says. ‘It just means you're paying the difference between what they can afford and what they need to be able to do it.’
Investing in Burgmann’s future
That same principle underpins Burgmann’s ambitions for the years ahead: to provide an outstanding residential experience while ensuring a resident’s financial circumstances do not put the possibility beyond their reach.
The College is embarking on a transformation to become a ‘gold standard’ residential college in Australia, drawing inspiration from the collegiate experience of institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge. Central to that ambition is investment in the residential experience, including enhanced staffing and a three-year development program designed to support residents throughout their time at Burgmann.
Just as importantly, the College is strengthening its commitment to needs-based support. Aligned with the new Strategy, a new financial model will soon fund up to ten scholarships of $15,000 each year for students who might otherwise be unable to experience College life.
Photographs below: The Bill Ranken plaque above Bill Ranken's door at Burgmann College.
Securing Burgmann’s future for generations to come
Supporting these ambitions is a broader commitment to securing Burgmann’s future for generations to come. The importance of that resilience became particularly clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when residents left and the College faced an extraordinary period of uncertainty. The experience reinforced the importance of building Burgmann’s long-term financial foundations while continuing to provide an exceptional experience for today's residents.
The Future Fund, Burgmann’s Endowment Fund, is central to that work. One way members of the Burgmann community can contribute is through the College’s room-naming initiative, with a $30,000 gift providing the opportunity to name a room and support the Future Fund.
There is something fitting about a room being at the centre of such a gift. For generations of residents, a Burgmann room has meant a bed, a desk, trees beyond the window and the ingenious, if slightly eccentric, ‘Tardis’, a feat of Burgmann space-saving that somehow combines a wardrobe and sink. It has meant the familiar slam of a neighbour’s window, conversations floating up from the courtyard, late-night essays, and even later conversations. These rooms have held homesickness and laughter, friendships and mistakes and, somewhere along the way, the experience of becoming and belonging.
For Bill and his wife Katharine, their legacy of creating a scholarship is a way of remaining connected to that community long after leaving it.
It's that reconnection with community and ‘paying something forward’ both which we think are important - and that we are doing something good for good people, and hopefully encouraging future leaders.
Fifty years after Bill’s mother Margaret made her gift, the idea behind it has endured: give what you can in recognition of what you received, so that someone else might have the same opportunity.
