Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology


The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Established in 1887 by Francis Ormond, it is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in Australia, a founding member of the Australian Technology Network, and a member of Universities Australia.
RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, science and technology in response to the Industrial Revolution in Australia. It was a private college for more than a hundred years before merging with the Phillip Institute of Technology to become a public university in 1992. It has an enrolment of around 95,000 higher and vocational education students. With an annual revenue of around A$1.5 billion. It is ranked 15th in the World for art and design subjects in the QS World University Rankings.
The main campus of RMIT is situated on the northern edge of the historic Hoddle Grid in the city centre of Melbourne. It has two satellite campuses in the city's northern suburbs of Brunswick and Bundoora and a training site situated on the RAAF Williams base in the western suburb of Point Cook. It also has a training site at Bendigo Airport in the Victorian city of Bendigo and a research site in Hamilton near the Grampians National Park. In Asia, it has two branch campuses in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and a training centre in Da Nang in Vietnam as well as teaching partnerships in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. In Europe, it has a research and collaboration centre in the Spanish city of Barcelona.

History

Early history (before 1887)

The antecedent of RMIT, the Working Men's College of Melbourne, was founded by the Scottish-born grazier and politician the Hon. Francis Ormond in the 1880s. Planning began in 1881, with Ormond basing his model for the college on the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution, Brighton College of Art, Royal College of Art and the Working Men's College of London.
Ormond donated the sum of £5,000 toward the foundation of the college. He was supported in the Victorian Parliament by Charles Pearson and in the Melbourne Trades Hall by William Emmett Murphy. The workers' unions of Melbourne rallied their members to match Ormond's donation. The site for the college, on the corners of Bowen Street and La Trobe Street, opposite the Melbourne Public Library, was donated by the Victorian Government.

Working Men's College (1887–1960)

The Working Men's College of Melbourne opened on 4 June 1887 with a gala ceremony at the Melbourne Town Hall, becoming the fifth tertiary education provider in Victoria. It took 320 enrollments on its opening night.
It opened as a night school for instruction in "art, science and technology"—in the words of its founder—"especially to working men". Ormond was a firm believer in the transformative power of education and believed the college would be of "great importance and value" to the industrialisation of Melbourne during the late-19th century. In 1904, it was incorporated under the Companies Act as a private college.
Between the turn of the 20th century and the 1930s, it expanded over the neighbouring Old Melbourne Gaol and constructed buildings for new art, engineering and radio schools. It also made its first contribution to Australia's war effort through training of returned military personnel from World War I. Following a petition by students, it officially changed its name to the Melbourne Technical College in 1934.
The expanded college made a greater contribution to Australia's effort during World War II by training a sixth of the country's military personnel—including the majority of its Royal Australian Air Force communication officers. It also trained 2000 civilians in munitions manufacturing and was commissioned by the Australian Government to manufacture military aircraft parts—including the majority of parts for the Beaufort Bomber.

RMIT (1960–1992)

Following World War II, in 1954 it became the first Australian tertiary education provider to be awarded royal patronage for its service to the Commonwealth in the area of education and for its contribution to the war effort; and was officially renamed the "Royal Melbourne Technical College". It became the only higher education institution in Australia with the right of the prefix "Royal" along with the use of the Australian monarchy's regalia.
Its name was officially changed to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1960. During the mid-20th century, it was restructured as a provider of general higher and vocational education and pioneered dual sector education in Australia. It also began an engagement with Southeast Asia during this time. In 1979, the neighbouring Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy joined with RMIT.

RMIT University (1992)

After merging with the Phillip Institute of Technology on 1st July 1992, it became a public university by act of the Victorian Government under the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Act 1992, and changed its name to RMIT University.
During the 1990s, the university underwent a rapid expansion and amalgamated with a number of nearby colleges and institutes. The Melbourne College of Decoration and Design joined RMIT in 1993, to create a new dedicated vocational design school, followed by the Melbourne College of Printing and Graphic Arts in 1995. That same year, it opened its first radial campus in Bundoora in the northern Melbourne metropolitan area. In 1999, it acquired the Melbourne Institute of Textiles campus in Brunswick in the inner-northern Melbourne metropolitan area for its vocational design schools.

Recent history (2000–present)

At the turn of the 21st century, it was invited by the Vietnamese Government to become the country's first foreign-owned university. Its first international branch campus opened in Ho Chi Minh City in 2001 with a second in Hanoi in 2004. In 2013, it established a presence in Europe by opening a centre in Barcelona, Spain.

Campuses

Australia

Melbourne City

Located in the Melbourne city centre, the historic City campus of RMIT is the foundation campus of the university as well as its largest and most recognisable. It is known for its striking contemporary architecture as well as its well-preserved Victorian era and interwar period buildings.
Founded in 1887, the City campus began as the Working Men's College of Melbourne. Its original building is situated on the corner of Bowen Street and La Trobe Street, and the campus has since grown to 87 buildings in 2016. The campus has no perimeter walls. As such, its buildings are contiguous with the surrounding city. Most of its buildings are spread across six city blocks covering approximately. It is roughly bound by La Trobe Street to the south, Elizabeth Street to the south-east and Swanston Street to the north-east, Queensberry Street to the north, Lygon Street to the north-west and Russell Street to the south-west. The campus area is situated between the two oldest sections of the city; the northern edge of the Hoddle Grid to its south and the Queen Victoria Market to its south-west. The area is sometimes referred to as the "RMIT quarter" of the city.
At the intersection of La Trobe Street and Swanston Street, the campus also benefits from its proximity to the State Library of Victoria as well as the adjacent Melbourne Central Shopping Centre and its City Loop underground railway station. It is also well-serviced by the city tram network along La Trobe Street and Swanston Street and has its own tram stop in the densest section of the campus.
The city block bound by Bowen Street, Franklin Street, La Trobe Street and Russell Street, served as the justice precinct of the city for over 100 years. While it is mostly occupied by campus buildings today, which were constructed over the site of the demolished Old Melbourne Gaol, some original buildings from the precinct remain and are used by the university. From the Old Melbourne Gaol, they include its east wing cell block which is now operated as a museum by the National Trust of Australia, its former chapel and gatehouse which are now used as a multi-faith place of worship for the campus, and the site of its former hospital which is now used as a landscaped space known as Alumni Courtyard. Other buildings from the precinct that remain are the former Melbourne City Watchhouse which is also operated as a museum by the National Trust, and the former Melbourne Magistrates' Court which is now used to house university administration.
Other notable buildings on the City campus include Storey Hall original section, Forresters' Hall, Capitol Theatre, Emily McPherson College, Building 8, Storey Hall annex, Singer Building "green brain", Design Hub and Swanston Academic Building.

Bundoora

The Bundoora campus was established in 1992. It is located 18 km from the City campus in the outer northern suburb of Bundoora. The campus is divided into 'East' and 'West' by Plenty Road. In a contrast to the urban City campus, the Bundoora West campus is set amongst almost of parkland.
Programs in aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, medical sciences and social sciences are offered at the Bundoora campus.

Brunswick

The Brunswick campus became a part of RMIT in 1999 as a dedicated site for its vocational design schools. It is located 6 km from the City campus in the inner northern suburb of Brunswick. Prior to its annexation by RMIT, it was the campus of the former Melbourne Institute of Textiles for nearly 50 years.
Programs in product design, fashion design, graphic design, printing, publishing and textiles are offered at the Brunswick campus.

Other sites

RMIT's flight training programs are conducted from its site at the Royal Australian Air Force's historic Williams base. It is located from the City campus in the outer south-western suburb of Point Cook. RAAF Williams is the world's oldest operating air force base and the birthplace of the Royal Australian Air Force.
The university also has a regional research site in the rural town of Hamilton. It is located 300 km west of the City campus in regional Victoria—just south of the Grampians National Park. The Potter Rural Community Research Centre at the site focuses on rural and regional issues in a global context.
RMIT Training also offers English Language Tests for Aviation or RELTA.