RMIT University

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Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Motto:	Perita manus, mens exculta (Latin) Literal translation: "Skilled hand, mind cultivated" Non-literal translation: "a skilled hand, a cultivated mind"
Established:	1887
Type:	Public
Endowment:	AU$1.107 billion[1]
Chancellor:	Emeritus Professor Dennis Gibson, AO, DSc
Vice-Chancellor:	Professor Margaret Gardner, AO
Faculty:	2,957
Undergraduates:	25,683 (2005)
Postgraduates:	8,424 (2005)
Location:	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Campus:	Urban
Organisations:	Member of Australian Technology Network, Global U8 (GU8) & Open Universities Australia
Affiliations:	ASAIHL
Website:	www.rmit.edu.au

RMIT University (officially The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) is an Australian university based in Melbourne, Victoria.

Founded in 1887, RMIT is the third oldest tertiary institution operating in Victoria, behind the University of Melbourne (founded in 1853) and the University of Ballarat (founded in 1870 as the School of Mines and Industry), and is the sixth oldest in Australia.

The University is a selective institution that has a strong domestic and international reputation^[2]. It is ranked in the top 10 universities in Australia and has continually been ranked in the UK Times Higher Education Supplement's prestigious "Top 200 Universities of the World". RMIT alumni are notable in the areas of aerospace engineering, architecture, art and design, fashion design and media.

The University's oldest and largest campus, the "City Campus", is located on the northern fringe of Melbourne's central business district, enveloping a number of city blocks and housed in historical and heritage listed buildings.

Other RMIT University and RMIT TAFE campuses are located close to the City Campus at Bundoora and Brunswick. The University also owns a number of regional sites, located across the state of Victoria, at Fisherman's Bend, Hamilton, Lakes Entrance and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base "Williams" at Point Cook.

Outside of Australia, RMIT also operates an international university in Vietnam, known as "RMIT International University, Vietnam" or "RMIT Vietnam", and has campuses in the Ho Chi Minh City suburb of Saigon South and in central Hanoi.

The University is a member of the international GU8 consortium^[3] (not to be confused with Australia’s Go8 group^[4]). As opposed to Australia's Go8 group, RMIT is a member of the Australian Technology Network (ATN)^[5].

While RMIT University focuses on higher education, RMIT TAFE is one of Victoria's largest vocational education institutions, offering trades training through TAFE courses, specialising in business, graphic design, printing and textiles.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early History 1.2 Creation of RMIT 1.3 Recent History 2 Rankings 3 Academic Portfolios 3.1 Business 3.2 Design and Social Context 3.3 Science, Engineering and Technology 4 Research Institutes and Centres 5 Specialist Collections 6 Campuses 6.1 City 6.2 Bundoora 6.3 Brunswick 6.4 Vietnam 6.5 Other Sites 7 Student Life 7.1 Unions 7.2 Student Media 7.3 Other Activities 8 Alumni 9 Future 10 References 10.1 Further reading 11 See also 12 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early History

In 1881, Francis Ormond, a prominent grazier, Freemason, philanthropist and Member of Parliament, offered £5,000 towards the establishment of a Working Men's College, on the condition that the general public contributes a similar sum. During the following five years, the money was raised by the Melbourne Trades Hall Council, which levied amongst its member unions^[6].

Construction of the Working Men's College began on a site adjacent the Old Melbourne Gaol on La Trobe Street in 1886, and the College opened with a gala ceremony in June 1887. The first part of Building 1 (now the Francis Ormond Building) took 320 students on its opening night, in technical, business and arts areas, and within 12 months of opening enrolments rose to over 1000 students^[6].

The Working Men’s College appointed its first full-time instructors in 1899. In the same year, full-time diploma courses are offered for the first time, firstly in engineering and applied science. Departments in engineering, chemistry, metallurgy and mining, fitting and turning also began to develop during the turn of the century, aided by the substantial fees charged by the College for its full-time courses^[6].

In 1904, the College was incorporated under the Companies Act. Prior to this time a board of trustees, consisting of Councillors of the College, were personally responsible for the College’s finances^[6]. Between 1904 and 1905, arguably the first colour photographs ever taken in Australia were of the Working Men’s College, by Australian colour photography pioneer and lecturer at the College, James Aebi. The long-term partnership between the College and the Victorian Railways department also began in 1905^[6], and Building 4 West (now Building 28) was completed, housing: printing, plumbing, gas fitting and carpentry trades teaching courses.

In 1917, the Arts School (now Building 2) was completed and, between 1917 and 1919, the College played a major role in training over 1500 returned Australian World War I servicemen in various trade vocations for post-war life^[6]. After the closure and partial demolishment of the nearby Old Melbourne Gaol in 1926, the College progressivly acquired the site for future expansion.

Directly prior to, and during World War II, the College underwent a major expansion, beginning with the completion of the Kernot Engineering School (now Building 3) in 1931. In 1934, the Council of the College agreed to change the name of the Working Men’s College to “The Melbourne Technical College” (incorporating the Working Men's College) after a representation from the Students' Association^[6]. During 1937, the Metallurgy Building (now Building 5) was completed as well as the first stage of the Radio School (now Building 9).

Between 1939 and 1945, the College again played a major part in training Australian and New Zealand (ANZAC) servicemen, this time for World War II. Over 22,000 servicemen passed through the College, mostly Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) personnel training in communications, and 2000 civilians are trained in munition manufacturing^[6]. Also during this time, the Australian Government also commissions the College to manufacture parts for the RAAF's Beaufort Bomber.

After World War II, and during the 1950s, the College developed courses in food technology, transport studies, accountancy, real estate and advertising. The chemical engineering course is upgraded with the cooperation of the University of Melbourne. Art syllabuses are also revised and courses in surveying are developed. During this time, the College also embraced the newly devised Colombo Plan, which increased its number of South East Asian students greatly^[6].

[edit] Creation of RMIT

In 1954, the College became the first Australian tertiary institution to be awarded the right of the prefix "Royal", along with the associated Monarchy of England regalia, and became the “Royal Melbourne Technical College”^[6]. During the same year, the neighbouring Hibernian Hall (later renamed Storey Hall in 1959) was acquired by the College. Six years later in 1960, the Council of the College enacted another name change, this time to "Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology", and thus the name "RMIT" was born^[6].

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the non-tertiary arm of RMIT is reconstituted as the “Technical College” and it is assumed the Institute and the College would eventually separate^[6]. The first computer at RMIT, an Elliott Automation model 803, was acquired at the instigation of the Department of Mathematics during the 1960s, and located on the ground floor of Storey Hall^[6].

The Technical College (TAFE) expanded its courses rapidly during the 1970s, especially in certificates of technology. The tertiary side of RMIT expanded its Business and general studies, and began including industrial research projects in undergraduate engineering degrees, strengthening RMIT's industrial links. In 1979, the adjacent Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy, near the 888 monument on Russell Street, amalgamated with RMIT^[6]. The female focused college predominantly covered fashion, textiles and cooking, at the time of the merger.

In 1987, RMIT celebrates its centennial year with a year-long calendar of events and festivals in the city of Melbourne. A time capsule is set in the pavement at the Bowen Street entrance to Building 1. The history of RMIT, dating back to its foundation as the Working Men's College, is written and published as "The Tech: A Centenary History of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology".

In 1991, RMIT withdrew from an agreement to merge with western suburbs technical institutes, to form what is know known as and Victoria University of Technology, when the agreement was deemed unacceptable to all parties involved^[7]. RMIT later merged with the northern suburbs’ Phillip Institute of Technology in 1992, acquiring the Institutes campuses in Coburg and Bundoora (now Bundoora Campus West).

RMIT was granted formal university status by the Parliament of Victoria in 1992, under the ‘’Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Act (1992)’’, with Director David Beanland becoming Vice-Chancellor, and Mr Ivan Deveson AO appointed as the foundation Chancellor^[7]. In the same year, the new University Board adopted the marketing name, "RMIT University"

[edit] Recent History

During the 1990s, RMIT underwent its biggest expansion since World War II. 1992 and 1993 saw the Melbourne College of Decoration and Design's "Department of Visual Merchandising" and "Department of Interior Decoration and Design" amalgamate with RMIT's Faculty of Art and Design to create the TAFE School of Design^[7]. RMIT also purchased the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works' northern regional headquarters on the east side of Plenty Road, Bundoora (later becoming Bundoora Campus East), and opened "RMIT Business" in the CBD's Tivoli Building^[7].

Also during 1992, the Department of Aerospace Engineering developed the World's fastest bicycle, known as the “SuperBike”, in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Sport. The SuperBike assists Australian and New Zealand cyclists set over 20 World Championship titles by 1999^[8].

Between 1994 and 1995, RMIT is the first Australian university to adopt an explicit international strategy incorporating the delivery of teaching programs off-shore and on-shore^[7]. 1995 also saw North Melbourne's Melbourne College of Printing and Graphic Arts merge with RMIT, and its courses transferred to the City Campus, and the opening of the Bundoora Campus East along with the University's new Aerospace site at Fisherman's Bend. In 1995 the University also acquired the state heritage listed former Melbourne Magistrates' Court building adjacent the University^[7].

In 1996, RMIT vacated and sold its Coburg campus to the City of Moreland^[7], and focused on the expansion of its Bundoora East and West Campuses constructing a series of new buildings on the sites, which went on to win numerous architecture prizes. In a world's first, a PhD at RMIT is researched, supervised, submitted, examined and stored entirely online. First posted online in 1995, "The Flight of the Ducks" was identified as being of national significance by the National Library of Australia and archived electronically in 1996^[7].

Between 1998 and 1999, RMIT received the first Australian Export Award for Education in 1998, the 1998 and 1999 Governor of Victoria Export Award for Education and the 1999 Business Asia News Magazine Award for Best Australian Service Activity in Asia^[7]. The Melbourne Institute of Textiles joined RMIT in 1999, together with its Brunswick campus. RMIT purchased the derilect Victorian Heritage Register listed Capitol Theatre in 1999, and refurbished it to Walter Burley Griffin's original design^[9].

In 2000, RMIT established "RMIT International University, Vietnam", an accredited campus of RMIT based near the centre of Ho Chi Minh City, which became the first foreign owned private university in Vietnam^[10]. RMIT’s Bachelor of Business in Logistics becomes the first non-Chinese degree in the world to be granted official Chinese Government approval^[7].

In 2002, the Aurora-RMIT solar car, developed by the Faculty of Engineering in conjunction with the Aurora Vehicle Association, broke the world distance record for a solar vehicle journey and the solar car speed record for 100 km, averaging 111km/h^[11].

During the early 2000s, RMIT experienced some financial worries, partly due to the major problems associated with the University's student administration system upgrade called "Academic Management System" (AU$47 million was spent in this effort). The financial woes eventually claimed the then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ruth Dunkin, and some of the University Board. The problems passed between 2006 and 2007, when RMIT posted operating profits of AU$50.1 million and AU$109.5 million for each year respectively^[12][13].

On April 4, 2005 RMIT University appointed a new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Margaret Gardner, AO.

[edit] Rankings

Research produced by the Melbourne Institute in 2006 ranked Australian universities across seven main discipline areas: Arts & Humanities, Business & Economics, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, and Science.

For each discipline, RMIT University was ranked^[14]:

Discipline	R11	No.	R21	No.
Arts & Humanities	23	38	31	35
Business & Economics	19	39	18	34
Education	23	35	26	32
Engineering	10	28	15	28
Law2	-	-	-	-
Medicine3	-	-	-	-
Science	19	38	17	31

¹R1 refers to Australian and overseas Academics' rankings in tables 3.1 -3.7 of the report. R2 refers to the Articles and Research rankings in tables 5.1 - 5.7 of the report. (No. refers to the number of institutions in the table against which RMIT is compared.)

²Prior to 2007, RMIT did not have law school (the Department of Accounting and Law commenced a Juris Doctorate program in late 2007).

³Whilst RMIT offers programs in health sciences (including nursing, biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences) it does not have a traditional medical school.

The following publications ranked universities worldwide. RMIT ranked:

Publications	Ave.	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Times Higher Education Supplement[15]	120.75						55	82	146	200
Shanghai Jiao Tong University[16]						u/r1	u/r	u/r	u/r	u/r
Newsweek[17]
The Economist
AsiaWeek2
Financial Times MBA rank[18]
Economist Intelligence Unit's MBA rank[19]
Webometrics[20]:	329.5								299	360

¹u/r = unranked.

²AsiaWeek is now discontinued.

[edit] Academic Portfolios

RMIT University offers programs of study in twenty-five schools across three academic portfolios^[21].

[edit] Business

• Accounting and Law
• Business Information Technology
• Business TAFE School
• Economics, Finance and Marketing
• Graduate School of Business
• Management

[edit] Design and Social Context

• Applied Communication
• Architecture and Design
• Art
• Creative Media
• Design (TAFE)
• Education
• Fashion and Textiles
• Global Studies, Social Science and Planning
• Property, Construction and Project Management

[edit] Science, Engineering and Technology

• Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
• Applied Sciences
• Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering
• Computer Science and Information Technology
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Health Sciences
• Infrastructure, Electrotechnology and Building Services
• Life and Physical Sciences
• Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences
• Medical Sciences

[edit] Research Institutes and Centres

RMIT maintains a number of specialist institutes and centres of research, both wholly operated by the university or in partnership with industry.

Notable Institutes:

• RMIT Design Research Institute
• RMIT Global Cities Research Institute
• RMIT Platform Technologies Research Institute
• RMIT Sustainable Health and Well-Being Research Institute

Notable Centres of Research:

• Australian Centre for Human Rights Education
• Centre for Applied Social Research
• Centre for Design
• Centre for Regional and Rural Development
• Microelectronics and Materials Technology Centre
• Rheology and Materials Processing Centre
• RMIT Virtual Reality Centre
• Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre for Aerospace Design Technology

[edit] Specialist Collections

RMIT maintains a large number of specialist collections, especially in its areas of strength. Notable collections include:

AFI Research Collection
The Australian Film Institute Research Collection is a significant non-lending, specialist film and television industry resource. The collection operates under the auspices of RMIT's School of Applied Communication in conjunction with the Australian Film Institute. The Collection has particular strengths in screen history and theory and in Australian cinema, and features a diverse range of books, journals, film scripts, film directories, reports and film festival catalogues^[22].

National Aerospace Resource Centre
The National Aerospace Resource Centre collection, a joint initiative of RMIT Aerospace and Aviation Engineering and the Royal Aeronautical Society, consists of approximately 100,000 volumes. It includes technical reports (NASA, NACA, AMRL, DSTO and other aerospace organizations), conference proceedings, books, videos, aircraft manuals and journals^[23].

Architecture and Australian Art
RMIT holds a considerable architecture and Australian art collection. Many of its campuses buildings are considered part of RMIT's architecture collection, and its Australian art collection is maintained by RMIT Gallery in Story Hall (also part of the architecture collection). The collection also includes the Lindsay Edward art collection and W.E. Macmillan gold and silversmithing collection. The history of the collection is documented in the publication: A Skilled Hand and Cultivated Mind^[24][25].

[edit] Campuses

In 2003, 58,078 students studied at RMIT University campuses in Melbourne and regional Victoria, in Vietnam, online, by distance education and at more than 190 partner institutions throughout the world. Prospective students currently have a choice of more than 900¹ higher education and TAFE programs at campuses located in: Melbourne CBD, Bundoora, Brunswick, Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) and Hanoi (Vietnam); as well as sites located at: Fisherman's Bend, Hamilton, Lakes Entrance and RAAF Williams (Point Cook).

¹According to the 2008 course list.

[edit] City

Founded in 1887 as the Working Men's College, the City Campus is RMIT's largest and oldest campus. Since the late 19th Century, its presence in the Melbourne central business district has been a culturally and socially defining one for the city.^{[citation needed]} Throughout RMIT's 120 year history, the campus has expanded from its original building on the corner of Bowen Street and La Trobe Street to encompass almost three city blocks. This has lead to the area being locally referred to as: the 'RMIT Quarter' of Melbourne, and the 'city within a city'.^{[citation needed]}

The campus is divided into a close network of precincts and is located between La Trobe Street, Elizabeth Street, Queensberry Street and Russell Street/Lygon Street, and borders Melbourne Central Shopping Centre (with its train station servicing RMIT), the State Library of Victoria and Lygon Street's Italian district. It occupies a culturally vibrant section of the city in the midst of galleries, restaurants and bars, and is also close to the iconic Queen Victoria Market and Melbourne's Chinatown precinct.

The precincts of the City Campus consist of: the Swanston Precinct, encompassing all buildings fronting Swanston Street and on the east-side of Bowen Street; the Justice Precinct, referring to the buildings located to the west of Bowen Street and the area around the Old Melbourne Gaol sites and former Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Russell Street; and the Carlton Precinct, enveloping all buildings on Cardigan Street, Lygon Street, Victoria Street and Queensberry Street.

The campus is notable for its mix of modern architecture and more gothic revival and Victorian architecture. As the campus expanded, university administration sought to preserve neighbouring historical and heritage listed buildings such as: the Francis Ormond Building (formerly the Working Men's College), Emily McPherson College, Old Melbourne Gaol, former Melbourne Magistrates' Court and City Watch House, Story Hall (formerly Hibernian Hall), Forresters' Hall and the off-site Capitol Theatre^[26], which are all now part of the City Campus.

[edit] Bundoora

RMIT's second largest campus, the Bundoora Campus, is a centre of learning housed in award-winning architecture and located in a semi-rural setting. Eighteen kilometres north-east of the city centre of Melbourne, the campus is divided into East and West, divided by Plenty Road. Bundoora Campus also has modern sporting facilities, including the Bundoora Netball and Sports Centre. Most of the courses offered at the City Campus are also offered at the Bundoora Campus, giving the students the opportunity to study in either an urban or rural setting.

[edit] Brunswick

Brunswick is the location of RMIT's fashion and printing campus. It became part of the University following the amalgamation of the Melbourne School of Printing and the Melbourne Institute of Textiles. Situated just 5 km from the city, the campus is a relaxed, friendly environment, and programs are offered in modern facilities, housed in RMIT's signature award-winning architecture. The campus is also situated a few minutes walk from vibrant Sydney Road, a multicultural area with a huge variety of specialty shops, restaurants, pubs and markets.

[edit] Vietnam

In 2000, RMIT Vietnam was granted a 50 year license, the first in Vietnam, from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, to deliver undergraduate and postgraduate education, training and research in Vietnam. All degree programs are recognized by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and are audited by the Australian Universities Quality Agency. The University degrees are awarded by RMIT University in Australia^[10].

RMIT International University, Vietnam commenced teaching English, university preparation, and degree programs in 2001 in Ho Chi Minh City and in 2004 in Hanoi. The University currently boasts a student population of over 3800 students with international students from many other countries^[10]. The recently constructed Saigon South Campus of RMIT Vietnam built on 12 hectares is a state-of-the-art campus equipped with laboratories and teaching facilities.

[edit] Other Sites

Other non-campus sites of RMIT are located across the state of Victoria at Fisherman's Bend, Hamilton, Lakes Entrance and RAAF Williams (Point Cook).

Fisherman's Bend
The Fisherman's Bend site is the home of RMIT's award-winning Sir Lawrence Wackett Aerospace Centre, and is located in the heart of the Fisherman’s Bend aerospace precinct, alongside (and in partnership with) companies such as Hawker de Havilland (Boeing Australia), GKN Aerospace and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation. Established by RMIT in 1991, the Centre collaborates with industry on research and consutancy and continuing education and training. The Centre is a designated design organisation of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia and is often contracted by the Australian Defence Force.

Hamilton
RMIT's Hamilton site is a regional education and community development centre in the Southern Grampians region, in the state of Victoria's Western district. Hamilton is also the home of RMIT's Regional Development in Global Context program, which conducts research on regional and rural policy, sustainable regional development, and on issues relevant to regional and rural communities. The Centre also runs Participatory Research Partnerships and a Bachelor of Nursing at the site, to assist with rural medical requirements and to strengthen Victoria's provincial West.

Lakes Entrance
The Lakes Entrance Site is home to RMIT's Aquaculture Research Facility, an ecotoxicology and aquaculture wet laboratory, and RMIT's Environmental Research and Education Centre, located on Bullock Island. The centre is a partnership project between RMIT University and the East Gippsland Institute of TAFE, which both have strong commitments to the region. RMIT University and the East Gippsland Institute of TAFE have been working together to offer joint graduate and postgraduate education initiatives to respond to the socioeconomic needs of the East Gippsland region since 1994.

Point Cook
RMIT University's flight training courses are conducted at its private facility located on the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base "Williams" at its Point Cook airfield, 20 kilometres south-west of the centre of Melbourne. Point Cook was the world's first military air base, and is also the "spiritual home" of the RAAF and the location of its national museum.

[edit] Student Life

RMIT Union and RMIT Student Union both run a large number of activities and clubs, and allow for social events and interaction between students. There are also a number of school-based student activities within each of the university's portfolios.

[edit] Unions

RMIT Union

The RMIT Union offers many co–curricular opportunities for students and is divided into branches known as Union Arts, Union Sports and Union Recreation. The RMIT Union also manages the large gym in the City Campus, known as City Fitness, and the Bundoora Netball and Sports Centre at the Bundoora Campus. Unlike the independently operated RMIT Student Union, RMIT Union is an unincorporated subsidiary body owned by the University.

Union Arts is the umbrella organisation for: performing arts, visual arts, screen arts and design, and collectives such as: Bossy Theatre Posse, Theatre in Bars, Stream (audio visual art), Exhibitionist (fine art), Projector Obscura (media art), SAMA (Japanese animation), ((tRansMIT)) (sound art), RMIT Music, RMIT Symphonic Orchestra (RSO), RMIT Occasional Choral Society and RMIT Concert Choir. Union Recreation is responsible for a large number of student trips and tours.

The RMIT Union Sports team, the "Redbacks", is one of the best performers at the Australian University Games. RMIT students are successful in the areas of: athletics, basketball, cycling, hockey, netball, rugby, soccer, squash, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, water polo and cheerleading^[27][28].

RMIT Student Union

Main article: RMIT Student Union

Separate from the RMIT Union, the RMIT Student Union operates across all campuses, and is active in organising political campaigns, events and providing support for academic and non-sporting and non-arts based clubs and societies. Postgraduate students are represented by the RMIT Postgraduate Association, a member of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations. In addition, most campus cafeteria areas, the large student space and cafeteria called "Intermission" in Building 8 (City Campus), and other recreation areas, such as the womyn's, queer and international students departments, are run by the RMIT Student Union further enhance student interaction.

[edit] Student Media

RMIT students have a history of launching successful community broadcasters including radio stations 3RMT FM (which became 3RRR), SYN FM and television production facility RMITV. The university is a founding member of the Melbourne Community Television Consortium which operates the Melbourne community broadcaster Channel 31 (C31), once based at RMIT's City Campus. C31 and RMITV helped launch the careers of Australian talk show host Rove McManus, radio DJs Hamish and Andy and journalist Amy Parks.

RMITV

Main article: RMITV

RMITV was once responsible for broadcasting ETV, a closed-circuit television system operated at the RMIT City Campus, and over the years has grown to become Australia's leading^{[citation needed][neutrality disputed]} community television production house. RMITV is also one of the oldest community television organisations in Australia.

SYN: Student Youth Network

Main article: SYN FM

The Student Youth Network replaced the SRA (RMIT Student Radio Association) in 2001 and launched in 2003. It is Melbourne's only independent youth media organisation. SYN broadcasts on one of the largest community radio licences in Victoria and can be heard throughout Melbourne, Geelong and in parts of regional Victoria on 90.7 FM, and is also responsible for producing 5 hours of live youth television each week for Channel 31. SYN also presents SYNBURBIA, a series of all-ages events in the Melbourne CBD, and is one of the largest youth projects in Australia with over 1,000 volunteers from within and outside of RMIT.

Catalyst

Main article: Catalyst (magazine)

Catalyst is RMIT's student magazine distributed free every month across all campuses. It is supported by the Student Union and the sale of advertising space within the magazine. The first edition of Catalyst, published by the then Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Students’ Representative Council, appeared on May 18, 1944. Editions have also appeared under the names "Revolution Catalyst" and "The Unaustralian". Prior to funding losses due to the onset of Voluntary Student Unionism, a womyn's edition caled "Havoc", a queer edition called "Mutiny" and a environment edition called "Eccocentric" were also published.

[edit] Other Activities

A large number of activities are run independently by students (with support of the Student Union) or within the University's respective portfolios, notably the RMIT Racing student engineering team and the "Organarchy" student organic food co-operative.

RMIT Racing

Main article: Rmit racing

RMIT's Formula SAE team, RMIT Racing, is considered one of the best in the world. Its most recent successes were in 2006 at the USA FSAE East Coast event, where it beat nine-time winner Cornell University and one of its own partner institutions Pennsylvania State University for the first place; and in 2007 when it was titled World Champion by FISITA (International Federation of Automotive Societies) after defeating 100 worldwide universities in 8 separate races at the Formula Student UK competition^[29]. The team mainly consists of students from Automotive, Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing programs, however, students from any course at the university can join the team.

[edit] Alumni

Main article: List of RMIT University people

RMIT alumni include: renowned artists and sculptors (including the designer of Australia’s first decimal coinage, the founder of the Australian Ballet School, the current Director of the National Gallery of Australia), authors and film makers (including numerous award recipients and the creators of the Saw film franchise), journalist and media personalities (including network news anchors and the publisher of the Wall Street Journal), renowned architects and industrial designers, fashion designers (such as Prue Acton and Jenny Bannister) and Australian federal as well as Victorian state government ministers (including the current Attorney-General of Victoria).

[edit] Future

RMIT is currently undergoing major redevelopment of its City Campus, in accordance with its 2007 - 2010 Infrastructure Plan^[30]. The plan places an emphasis on the development on a new Design Hub building on the corner of the former CUB Site on Swanston Street^[31], as part of an AU$800 million dollar redevelopment by Grocon^[32][33].

The plan also focuses on the relocation of the Graduate School of Business to the former Emily McPherson College building, and on the development of new open spaces in the Justice Precinct and Carlton Precinct. A new building for the Business portfolio will also be built on the corner of Swanston Street and A'Beckett Street according to RMIT Property Services^[34]. The new Swanston Street building will be one of the biggest projects undertaken by University with an estimated price at AU$185 million, and will contain around 37,000sqm of floor space. The project is estimated to be completed in 2011.

According to RMIT Property Services^[35], 2008 and 2009 will also see upgrades to Buildings 1 (the original Working Men's College building), 2, 4, 6, 22 and 24, and the relocation of the School of Applied Communication to Building 9.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Murray-Smith, S and Dare, A.J (1987): The Tech: A Centenary History of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Hyland House Publishing, Melbourne, ISBN 0-947062-06-8
• Edquist, H and Grierson, E (2008): A Skilled Hand and Cultivated Mind: A Guide to the Architecture and Art of RMIT, RMIT University Press, Melbourne

[edit] See also

• Old Melbourne Gaol
• Former Melbourne Magistrates' Court
• RMIT Capitol Theatre
• RMIT Racing
• RMITV
• SYN FM
• 3RRR

[edit] External links

• RMIT website
• RMIT Alumni website
• RMIT Union website
• RMIT Student Union website
• RMIT Racing Formula SAE Team
• RMIT University is at coordinates 37°48′26″S 144°57′52″E / -37.807139, 144.964374 (RMIT University)Coordinates: 37°48′26″S 144°57′52″E / -37.807139, 144.964374 (RMIT University)

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