RMIT University

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Proposed by Francis Ormond, and established in 1887 by Ormond, the Victorian government, Trades Hall Council and others, it is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in Australia, a founding member of the Australian Technology Network (ATN), and a member of Universities Australia (UA).

RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, science and technology in response to the Industrial Revolution in Australia. It was a publicly funded tertiary college and trade school (first by the Victorian Colonial Government, later by the Federal Government) 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 (now a constituent college of the University of London), Brighton College of Art (now the University of Brighton), 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 (the Melbourne Athenaeum was founded in 1839, the University of Melbourne in 1853, the Ballarat School of Mines in 1870 and the Bendigo School of Mines in 1873). 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.

Campuses

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 720,000 square metres (7,800,000 sq ft). It is roughly bound by La Trobe Street to the south, Elizabeth Street to the south-east and Swanston Street to the north-east (connected by Franklin Street), 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 (Stop 7 RMIT University/Swanston Street) 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 (1854) which is now operated as a museum by the National Trust of Australia, its former chapel and gatehouse (1860) 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 (1904) which is also operated as a museum by the National Trust, and the former Melbourne Magistrates' Court (1914) which is now used to house university administration.

Organisation and governance

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is a public university created under the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Act 1992 by the Government of Victoria, and continues in accordance with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Act 2010.

The university trades under the name "RMIT University" which is a registered business name and trademark. It is composed of the academic colleges and schools, research centres and institutes of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and is governed by the RMIT Council and is managed by the RMIT Chancellery.

Divisions

RMIT University is separated into two divisions: the Higher Education Division and the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Division. The divisions are responsible for the 17 academic schools of RMIT—which are grouped into three academic portfolios referred to as colleges. The higher education schools offer undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, while the VET schools offer vocational certificates and diplomas.

Council

RMIT is governed by a council consisting of 21 members, which is responsible for the "general direction and superintendence of the University". The RMIT Council is led by the RMIT Chancellor who is an ex officio member and serves as its Governor-in-Council. The RMIT vice-chancellor and president, as well as the chair of the RMIT Academic Board, are also ex officio members of the council.

Five members of the RMIT Council are elected by direct ballot of the staff and students of the university. They consist of three staff members elected to represent the higher education, vocational education and general staff of the university, and two students elected to represent higher education and vocational education students. The remaining members are appointed directly by the RMIT Chancellor and Governor, or by a vote of the sitting council members. Members appointed directly to the council are required to possess a substantial expertise in academic or financial management, vocational education or training experience, and be drawn from beyond the university community.

Vice-chancellor

The RMIT Council grants power over all academic and administrative affairs of the university to the vice-chancellor and president—who is the chief executive officer of the university. The vice-chancellor and president is "responsible for the conduct of the University's affairs in all matters". Management of RMIT's colleges and portfolios is then delegated by the vice-chancellor and president to a team of deputy and pro vice-chancellors as well as senior executives.

Academics

Academic reputation

In the 2024 Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities, which measures aggregate performance across the QS, THE and ARWU rankings, the university attained a position of #199 (14th nationally).

National publications

In the Australian Financial Review Best Universities Ranking 2025, the university was tied #19 amongst Australian universities.

Global publications

In the 2026 Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (published 2025), the university attained a position of #125 (10th nationally).

In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 (published 2025), the university attained a position of #251–300 (tied 14–20th nationally).

In the 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities, the university attained a position of #301–400 (tied 14–20th nationally).

In the 2025–2026 U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities, the university attained a position of #198 (14th nationally).

In the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2024, the university attained a position of #239 (11th nationally).

Student outcomes

The Australian Government's QILT conducts national surveys documenting the student life cycle from enrolment through to employment. These surveys place more emphasis on criteria such as student experience, graduate outcomes and employer satisfaction than perceived reputation, research output and citation counts.

In the 2023 Employer Satisfaction Survey, graduates of the university had an overall employer satisfaction rate of 84.7%.

In the 2023 Graduate Outcomes Survey, graduates of the university had a full-time employment rate of 71.8% for undergraduates and 98% for postgraduates. The initial full-time salary was A$66,800 for undergraduates and A$98,000 for postgraduates.

In the 2023 Student Experience Survey, undergraduates at the university rated the quality of their entire educational experience at 73.9% meanwhile postgraduates rated their overall education experience at 77.9%.

Research

RMIT focuses on applied research as well as outcome-related research and consultancy services, and has extensive partnerships with government and industry. It mainly focuses its research in the areas of design, technology, health, globalisation and sustainability.

Its Portfolio of Research and Innovation operates on a similar scale to its colleges, and also contains a specialist research school in order to foster excellence in research methodology and pedagogy. In addition to the Portfolio of Research and Innovation, over 50 research centres operate independently within RMIT's colleges and schools as well as a large number of smaller research groups.

Collections

Libraries

RMIT Library is the central libraries network of the university. It has four locations across RMIT's three Australian campuses. Swanston Library is the largest in the network, and is located in Building 8 at the City campus. Swanston Library is also reported to be amongst the top five libraries in all of Melbourne. Other libraries in the network are the Brunswick Library, Bundoora West Library and Carlton Library (the latter of which is also at the City campus).

The City campus also benefits from its proximity to the State Library of Victoria—the central public reference library and the largest library in Melbourne.

In addition to its libraries network, RMIT schools also maintain their own specialised collections. Notable examples of school-maintained collections are the AFI Research Collection, RMIT Design Archives and National Aerospace Resource.

Two libraries are located at RMIT's Vietnam campuses; Beanland Library and Hanoi Library. The Beanland Library is the larger of the two libraries, and is located at the Ho Chi Minh City campus.

Online databases

Selected research of RMIT academics and postgraduate students can be accessed through the RMIT Research Repository—an open access database of peer-reviewed published articles, conference papers, books and chapters, etc. Documents held by the RMIT Research Repository are also indexed by Google Scholar, National Library of Australia and WorldCat. As of March 2013, there are more than 19,000 records in the Repository.

The university's subsidiary, RMIT Training, also owns and operates the Informit online library database, which is the largest database of research from across Australia and the Asia-Pacific.

Galleries

The major public art gallery of the university is RMIT Gallery, located at the City campus. The gallery runs a highly regarded program of Australian and international exhibitions, and focuses on contemporary art, design and visual culture. It is located in the historic original section of Storey Hall on Swanston Street and is considered to be one of Melbourne's most vibrant art galleries. The gallery also publishes widely on art and design research in partnership with RMIT Publishing.

RMIT First Site Gallery at the City campus is the main gallery of the RMIT Link campus union, and focuses on emerging artists and is located beneath RMIT Gallery. The campus union also manages the Artland program at the Brunswick campus. Artland consists of 16 sites around the campus and Brunswick streets showcasing work of design students.

In addition to the Story Hall galleries, many of RMIT's schools also manage their own discipline-relevant galleries. Notable examples are the School of Art's main gallery and

Student life

Link (campus union)

RMIT Link is the university's campus union. It exists to sponsor and promote social, cultural, educational, sporting and recreational programs and activities among the RMIT community, and to provide such facilities and services at RMIT's Australian campuses. Link is separated into two divisions: Arts & Culture and Sports & Recreation. It is a controlled entity under the authority of RMIT's Council.

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