| colours = <span style="background:#E60028; border:1px solid #fff; color:#fff; padding:2px 14px;">Red</span> <span style="background:#000054; border:1px solid #fff; color:#fff; padding:2px 14px;">Blue</span>
| nickname =
| mascot = Rupert the Redback Spider
| sporting_affiliations =
| faculty =
| administrative_staff =
| website = rmit.edu.au
| logo = RMIT_University_Logo.svg
| logo_size = 180px
| footnotes =
| image_name = Arms of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.svg
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. With an annual revenue of around A$1.5 billion.
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.
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. 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.
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 (under the Australian Government's Colombo Plan). In 1979, the neighbouring Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy joined with RMIT. 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. In 2013, it established a presence in Europe by opening a centre in Barcelona, Spain.
Campuses
Australia
Melbourne City
thumb|right|The "green brain" of Building 22 (Singer Building) on the Melbourne City campus
thumb|right|Design Hub building on the left, corner of [[Swanston Street|Swanston and Victoria Streets]]
thumb|right|School of Art buildings on the Melbourne City campus
thumb|right|Alumni Courtyard was created from the ruins of the Old Melbourne Gaol
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. 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 .
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.
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.
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 (RAAF) 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.
Asia
Ho Chi Minh City
In 1998, RMIT was invited by the Vietnamese Government to establish the country's first foreign-owned university. Today, the Pham Ngoc Thach site remains a radial site of the present Ho Chi Minh City campus. The first academic buildings on the large purpose-built campus opened in 2005.
Other partners
RMIT teaches and/or accredits programs for the Hong Kong Art School and Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade in China, SIM Global Education in Singapore and Taylor's University in Malaysia.
Europe
Barcelona
In 2013, RMIT established a coordinating centre in Barcelona, Spain.
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
thumb|right|Building 1 (Francis Ormond Building), left, and Building 20 (Former Magistrates' Court), right, on the Melbourne City campus is home to the RMIT Chancellery
RMIT is governed by a council consisting of 21 members, which is responsible for the "general direction and superintendence of the University". 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.
Academic board
The requirements for the conferring of an academic degree of the university is determined and approved by the RMIT Academic Board. The board consists of the RMIT Chancellery as ex officio members, and up to a further 46 members—34 of which must be elected by staff and students. Those conferred an academic degree of the university may use the post-nominal letters "RMIT" with the abbreviation of their degree title.
Colleges and schools
thumb|right|Building 80 (Swanston Academic Building) on the Melbourne City campus, home to the College of Business
thumb|right|Building 1 (Francis Ormond Building) and Building 3 (Old Kernot Engineering School) on the Melbourne City campus
The four academic colleges housing the schools of RMIT are the College of Business and Law (BUSL), College of Design and Social Context (DSC) and College of Vocational Education and the STEM College (incorporating the fields of sciences, engineering, computing technologies and health and medical sciences (STEM).
College of Business and Law
- RMIT School of Accounting, Information Systems and Supply Chain
- RMIT School of Economics, Finance and Marketing
- RMIT School of Graduate Business and Law
- RMIT School of Management
College of Design and Social Context
- RMIT School of Architecture and Urban Design
- RMIT School of Art
- RMIT School of Design
- RMIT School of Education
- RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles
- RMIT School of Global, Urban and Social Studies
- RMIT School of Media and Communication
- RMIT School of Property, Construction and Project Management
STEM College
- RMIT School of Computing Technologies
- RMIT School of Engineering
- RMIT School of Health and Biomedical Sciences
- RMIT School of Science
College of Vocational Education
incorporates the fields of business, design and technology, media, art and communication, social care, engineering technology, nursing, computer science, myotherapy, dental studies, trades and the built environment.
- RMIT School of Vocational Business Education
- RMIT School of Vocational Engineering, Health and Sciences
Commercial subsidiaries
"RMIT Group" is the business unit of the university and consists of the entities controlled by RMIT University,
- Informit (for online publication and
- RMIT English Worldwide.
(RMIT Training owned a number of other subsidiaries between 1999 and 2009, but these have been either terminated or merged into the three remaining entities.)
As of 2013, international holdings companies included RMIT Spain (trading as RMIT Europe) and RMIT Vietnam, and there were other commercial interests and sub-entities. , RMIT has two campuses in Vietnam and one in Spain.
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