RMIT University

RMIT University (officially Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, informally RMIT) is an Australian public university of technology, design, and enterprise, based in Melbourne, Victoria.

Founded in 1887 by the prominent grazier and public benefactor the Hon Francis Ormond—as the Working Men's College of Melbourne—it began as a night school for the instruction of art, science and technology during the 19th century industrialisation of Melbourne. Its foundation City campus is located in the northern section of the Melbourne city centre, and has since developed into contiguous part of the area. It had an initial enrollment of 320 students in 1887, which has grown to around 82,000 students across vocational, undergraduate and postgraduate levels as of 2013.

In addition to its Melbourne City campus, it has two radial campuses in the Melbourne metropolitan area—located in the northern suburbs of Bundoora and Brunswick; and two training and research sites in the Melbourne metropolitan area and the Grampians state region—located in the western suburb of Point Cook and the town of Hamilton respectively. Outside of Australia, it also has two branch campuses in Asia—located in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam; and a centre in Europe—located in Barcelona, Spain.

According to the 2015/16 QS World University Rankings, RMIT was ranked 20th in the world for art and design subjects; making it the top design school in Australia.

Research

RMIT primarily focuses on applied research as well as outcome-related research and consultancy services, and has extensive partnerships with government and industry. It specifically 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. It 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.