Academic Author Historian

Geoffrey Edgar Sherington (born 16 August 1945) is an Australian academic historian with expertise in the field of history of education. He is the former Dean of Education and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sydney.

Geoffrey Edgar Sherington was born in Sydney, Australia and grew up in the suburbs of Roseville and St Ives on Sydney’s North Shore. He attended Roseville Public School and Sydney Church of England Grammar School (SCEGS).

He attended the University of Sydney where he completed a Bachelor of Arts (BA) (Honours Class II Division I) in 1966. He then went on to complete a Master of Arts at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1970 and a Doctor Philosophy (PhD) at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1974.

Sherington was a Tutor in History at the University of New South Wales between 1967 and 1969 before his appointment as Senior Tutor in History at the University of Sydney between 1975 and 1978. Between 1978 and 1981, he was a Lecturer in Education at the University of Wollongong before he accepted a Lecturer position in the newly created Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney in 1981. He was a Visiting Fellow at Monash University and the Australian Studies Centre, now referred to as the Menzies Institute in London and an Honorary Associate at the Institute of Education at the University of London. In 1984, he was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Sydney and was a visiting Fellow at Dalhousie University, the University of Western Ontario and the University of British Columbia. In 1988, he became Associate Professor in Education at the University of Sydney and held the roles of Association Dean (Undergraduate) and Head of the Division of Graduate Studies. He was then appointed as Head of School of Social Policy Studies in Education in 1993. In 1997, he was elected to a Personal Chair in History of Education and became Dean of Education at the University of Sydney and then Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Sydney in 2003. He retired from the University of Sydney in 2011, following his appointment as Emeritus Professor.

An accomplished author, Sherington has written extensively on Australian education, school histories, and university development. His works include Australia’s Immigrants, School Choice and Sydney: The Making of a Public University, reflecting his deep engagement with social and educational change.