Administrative History
Under the Act of Incorporation the Senate was to be constituted in the first instance when Council "shall be reported to the Govenor that the number of graduates admitted by the said university to any of the degrees of Master of Arts. Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Science or Doctor of Music, and graduates of three years' standing is not less than fifty, and such report shall have been published in the Government Gazette".

Subsequently the Senate was to comprise all persons admitted to a degree by the University (extended under the 1971 Act to include full-time employees of graduate status and post-graduate students). In order to constitute the Senate it was necessary therefore to admit graduates ad eundem gradum, and a circular letter inviting known graduates to apply for admission was sent by the Registrar in February 1877. By 27 April, seventy-eight replies had been received, of whom seventy-five were considered admissable by the Council's special Senate Committee, and accordingly the first commencement was held on 2 May 1877.

The Chancellor. the Right Rev. Dr. Short, an Oxford Master of Arts, was admitted to the first degree of the University of Adelaide by the Vice-Chancellor and then admitted 73 other graduatesin an impressive ceremony in the Town Hall. the Council reported the admissions to the Govenor the same day and the report was published in the Government Gazette on 10 April, thus duly constituting the Senate in accordance with the provisions of the University Act. Under the Act of Incorporation and subsequent University Acts Senate was required to approve any new, amended or repealed Statute before it could be sent to the Govenor for confirmation.

Changes to the University Act in December 2003 resulted in the Senate being abolished.