In 1928 he was the inaugural President of the Canberra Rotary Club. In 1929, he formed the Canberra University Association in order to promote the formation of a university in Canberra, and in 1930 organised the establishment of Canberra University College (essentially a campus of the University of Melbourne) which taught undergraduate courses, chairing its council for its first twenty-three years. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Garran "consistently advocated the establishment of what he prophetically called 'a National University at Canberra' ",[9] which would be primarily for specialist research and postgraduate study, in areas particularly relating to Australia, such as foreign relations with Asia and the Pacific region.[9] This vision was evidently influential on the establishment of the Australian National University (ANU) in 1946,[9] the only research-only university in the country (although in 1960 it amalgamated with Canberra University College to offer undergraduate courses).[33]