The idea for atechnical school based in the western suburbs of Melbourne was first proposed in 1910. TheFootscray Technical School opened its doors to 220 students and 9 teachers in 1916 after five years offundraising.
Charles Archibald Hoadley was the school'sprincipal from its founding until his death in 1947.[10] Under Hoadley's leadership, the school expanded and began offeringtrade certificate courses,diplomas inarchitecture,building, andcontracting, as well as evening classes. War and the Depression saw a dip in student numbers. However, by 1943, there were 2500 students enrolled in courses taught at theFootscray Park and Footscray Nicholson campuses.
The following decades saw gender and cultural shifts. In 1958, the school changed its name to theFootscray Technical College. Ten years later, it changed its name again, this time, to theFootscray Institute of Technology (FIT). Women first enrolled in day diploma courses in 1960, and changes to thefederal government'simmigration policy resulted in many more European and Asian students entering the school. The secondary school component, now known asFootscray City College, was separated from the rest of the institute in 1972. By the mid-1970s, the expanded curriculum includeddegree courses and was well beyond the technical focus of the original Footscray Technical School. Further changes occurred in the 1980s, with the technical and trade education section separating from FIT to form the Footscray and Newport Colleges of TAFE.[11]
In 1990, FIT merged with the Western Institute, which had been founded three years earlier to provide TAFE and higher education courses to the outlying suburbs in western Melbourne. In 1990, it was established as a university by the Victoria State Parliament asVictoria University of Technology (VUT).[12] The university further amalgamation with the Western Melbourne Institute of TAFE in 1998. In 2005, the Victoria University of Technology Act of 1990 was amended to rename the university as Victoria University, reflecting the development of its teaching and research.[13][14]
The institutions that combined to form VU include:
Footscray Technical School, renamed Footscray Technical College and later Footscray Institute of Technology
Newport Technical College, renamed Newport College of TAFE
Melbourne School of Hairdressing
School of Painting, Decorating and Sign Crafts
Melbourne Technical College of Hairdressing
Melbourne College of Decoration
Footscray College of TAFE
Flagstaff College of TAFE
Western Institute
Gellibrand College of TAFE, renamed Western Metropolitan College of TAFE
Victoria University has campuses located throughout Melbourne's western region and thecity centre. The new VU City Tower will be Melbourne's tallest vertical campus, and is due for completion in 2021.[15] One campus is located in central Sydney.
Victoria University Footscray Park Campus – Building P
Footscray Park Campus on Ballarat Road,Footscray is the university's main campus and administrative centre. It offers higher education courses primarily in engineering, education and sport-related disciplines. It occupies a 7-hectare (17-acre) site overlookingFlemington Racecourse and theMaribyrnong River. The A$68.5 million sport and learning precinct, including sport and exercise science research labs, was completed in early 2011. The campus also has a 25-metre swimming pool and a childcare centre.[16]
St Albans Campus on McKenchie Street,St Albans, is the university's health and education hub, with a focus on psychology, nursing, arts, and paramedic and biomedical sciences. It is set on 32 hectares (79 acres) of native grasslands and sugar gums. The new St Albans Health and Fitness Centre was opened in 2013.[17]
Victoria University Footscray Nicholson Campus – Building T as viewed from Buckley Street
Footscray Nicholson Campus is in centralFootscray, on the corner of Nicholson and Buckley Streets. It delivers TAFE, VCE and short courses. Its new learning commons was opened in 2012 offering a broad range of educational and student services.[18]
The City Campus includes the VU City Tower and the law building at 295Queen Street in the heart of Melbourne's legal precinct. The campus houses business courses, Osteopathy, a hair and beauty salon as well as the university's College of Law and Justice, a law library, the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre and two moot courts. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate law courses, including continuing legal education courses for legal professionals.[19][20]
The 16-hectare (40-acre) Werribee Campus is located in theWerribee agricultural research and tertiary education precinct. It offers trades training as well as facilities for water, food and fire safety research.[21]
The Sunshine Campus of Victoria Polytechnic is located on Ballarat Road,Sunshine. It offers TAFE courses, focusing mainly on business and the construction industries.[22] The A$44 million high-technology Construction Hub was opened in 2013 for building and construction training. The campus also has a convention centre with a 200-seat auditorium.
Victoria University delivers a number of business courses for international students at its campus in central Sydney,[23] which operates in partnership with the Education Centre of Australia (ECA).[24]
In late 2010, VU opened an A$8 million Sport and Recreation Learning Centre in partnership with theWestern Bulldogs at theWhitten Oval in West Footscray.[25] The Centre contains massage therapy clinics open to the public, as well as a 140-seat lecture theatre, a library, classrooms and offices.
Several of the university's colleges offer internationally recognised qualifications ranging from certificates and diplomas to degrees, postgraduate certificates and diplomas, and masters and doctoral research degrees (PhD). Victoria Polytechnic and VU College offer vocational education courses and higher education diplomas. These are divided between several colleges, including:
The College of Arts and Education
The College of Business
The College of Engineering and Science
The College of Health and Bio-medicine
The College of Law and Justice
The College of Sport and Exercise Science
Victoria University Polytechnic, which is theTAFE division of Victoria University.
For international students starting in 2025, tuition fees range fromA$14,900 toA$20,000 per semester forhigher education programs at thediploma level or above.[26] Domestic students[a] may be offered a federally-subsidised Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) which substantially decreases the student contribution amount billed to the student.[28] The maximum student contribution amount limits that can be applied to CSP students are dependent on the field of study.[29]
Since 2021, Commonwealth Supported Places have also been limited to 7 years of equivalent full-time study load (EFTSL), calculated in the form of Student Learning Entitlement (SLE).[30] Students may accrue additional SLE under some circumstances (e.g. starting aseparate one-year honours program) or every 10 years.[30] Domestic students are also able to access the HECS-HELP student loans scheme offered by the federal government.[31] These are indexed to theConsumer orWage Price Index, whichever is lower, and repayments are voluntary unless the recipient passes an income threshold.[31]
The university also offers severalscholarships, which come in the form ofbursaries or tuition fee remission.[32]
The Australian Government's QILT[c] conducts national surveys documenting the student life cycle from enrolment through to employment.[48] These surveys place more emphasis on criteria such as student experience, graduate outcomes and employer satisfaction[48] than perceived reputation, research output and citation counts.[49]
In the 2023 Employer Satisfaction Survey, graduates of the university had an overall employer satisfaction rate of 85.5%.[50]
In the 2023 Graduate Outcomes Survey, graduates of the university had a full-time employment rate of 64.5% for undergraduates and 84.9% for postgraduates.[51] The initial full-time salary wasA$69,400 for undergraduates andA$93,900 for postgraduates.[51]
In the 2023 Student Experience Survey, undergraduates at the university rated the quality of their entire educational experience at 81.2% meanwhile postgraduates rated their overall education experience at 75.5%.[52]
In 2019, VU had 43,802 students.[54] Approximately 65% student in higher education degree programs, and 35% enrolled in TAFE training courses. Of these students, 5,662 were international students studying at one of VU's Melbourne or Sydney Campuses, and 3,772 were international students studying at VU programs overseas at one of its partner organisations located mainly in Asia.[54]
VU owns and operates student accommodation for students, staff, and guests of the university.[55] In February 2016, the Student Village in Maidstone was replaced with the newly built UniLodge Victoria University, a 13-story apartment building across the road from the Footscray Park Campus on Ballarat Road, Footscray.
^According to theHigher Education Support Act 2003, domestic students include permanent residents and New Zealand citizens in addition to Australian citizens.[27]
^"Contact us".Melbourne, Victoria: Victoria University.Archived from the original on 1 November 2024. Retrieved10 November 2024.
^"Brand Guidelines"(PDF).Melbourne, Victoria: Victoria University. 9 June 2020.Archived(PDF) from the original on 10 May 2024. Retrieved10 November 2024.
Rasmussen, Carolyn (1989),Poor Man's University: 75 years of Technical Education in Footscray, Melbourne: The Press of the Footscray Institute of TechnologyISBN1-86297-000-9
90 Years, 90 Legends (2006), Melbourne: Published by Victoria UniversityISBN1-86272-665-5
Media related toVictoria University, Melbourne at Wikimedia Commons