About Swinburne University

Swinburne University of Technology (often simply called Swinburne) is a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1908 as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College by George Swinburne in order to serve those without access to further education in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.[49] Its main campus is located in Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne which is located 7.5 km from the Melbourne central business district.

In addition to its main Hawthorn campus, Swinburne has campuses in the Melbourne metropolitan area at Wantirna and Croydon as well as a campus in Sarawak, Malaysia.

In the 2016 QS World University Rankings, Swinburne was ranked 32nd for art and design, making it one of the top art and design schools in Australia and the world.

History

Swinburne University of Technology has its origins in the Eastern Suburbs Technical College, which was established in 1908 in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn by George Swinburne. In 1913, the institution changed its name from Hawthorn College to Swinburne Technical College.

It attained university status on 1 July 1992 with the passage of the Swinburne University of Technology Act.

Swinburne Technical College (1940s)
As a consequence of the Dawkins reforms to Australian higher education in the early 1990s, the university began teaching in the suburb of Prahran through a merger in 1992 with Victoria College (previously the Prahran Institute of TAFE),[55] which stood on the site of Victoria’s first training institute, the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute.

In 1997, Swinburne opened a campus at Lilydale, Victoria. In 1998, it merged with the Outer East Institute of TAFE and began operating from campuses at Croydon and Wantirna.[56]

In 1999, Swinburne established the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA).

In 2000, the university opened a campus in Sarawak, Malaysia, as a partnership between the university and the Sarawak State Government.

In February 2011, the university opened the Advanced Technologies Centre,[59] a 22,000 square metre building of modern architectural design at its Hawthorn campus,[60] known locally as “the cheese grater building”.

Following a series of funding cuts announced by the Victorian Government to vocational education in May 2012,[62] Swinburne announced that it would close its Lilydale and Prahran campuses.[63] Lilydale campus officially closed on 1 July 2013.[64] The university sold its Prahran campus to the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE in 2014.

In 2015, Swinburne launched its law school and became the first university in Victoria to enable students to complete their practical legal training during the final year of their law degree.

Campuses

The Hawthorn campus is Swinburne’s main campus. It hosts a range of vocational, undergraduate, and postgraduate programs.

Wantirna is a TAFE-specific campus.[68] The campus also offers courses in areas including health and community services, visual arts, business and accounting.

The university’s Croydon campus is a TAFE-specific campus, with a focus on training in trades such as building, carpentry, electrical and plumbing