The University of Divinity is an Australian collegiate university with a specialised focus in

divinity Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a single ...

and associated disciplines. It is constituted by twelve

theological college A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and Christian theology, theology, generally to prepare them for ordinatio ...

s from seven denominations and three schools. The University of Divinity is the direct successor of the second oldest degree-granting authority in the State of Victoria, the Melbourne College of Divinity. The university's chancery and administration are located in Box Hill, a suburb of Melbourne in the state of Victoria. The Melbourne College of Divinity was constituted in 1910 by an act of the

Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria that follows a Westminster System, Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the Monarchy in Australia, King, represent ...

. The act was amended in 1956, 1972, 1979, 1990, 2005 and 2016 and is now known as the ''University of Divinity Act 1910'' (previously the ''Melbourne College of Divinity Act 1910''). From its beginnings the college was a self-accrediting issuer of degrees, while not becoming a university until 2011. Representatives appointed by several churches formed the college to provide tertiary level theological education. The first president was the Right Reverend Henry Lowther Clarke, Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, and the first registrar was the Reverend John Mathew, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. In 2010, the Melbourne College of Divinity applied to the Victorian Regulation and Qualifications Authority for approval to operate as a self-accrediting "Australian University of Specialisation" (a category of higher education provider). The Victorian government announced on 30 August 2011 that the application had been approved and on 1 January 2012 the college began operating as a university. Peter Sherlock was appointed the inaugural vice-chancellor in April 2012. In May 2019 TEQSA extended the seven-year licence to operate as a university for an additional three years to the maximum possible of ten years before a review. On 1 July 2021, TEQSA changed the provider category of University of Divinity from Australian University of Specialisation to Australian University, with self-accrediting authority in the broad field of Society and Culture’. In the 2022 Student Experience Survey, the University of Divinity recorded the highest student satisfaction rating out of every Australian university, with an overall satisfaction rating of 91.

Governance and structure

Affiliated colleges

The colleges of the University of Divinity are: * Australian Lutheran College, Adelaide, South Australia *Eva Burrows College, in Ringwood, Victoria; Training college of the

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

in Australia * Catholic Theological College, East Melbourne, Victoria. A federation of autonomous seminaries: ** Corpus Christi College **St Mary's Seminary **Salesian Theological College **St Joseph of Cupertino Friary (

Conventual Franciscan The Order of Friars Minor Conventual (O.F.M. Conv.) is a male religious fraternity in the Catholic Church and a branch of the Franciscan Order. Conventual Franciscan Friars are identified by the affix O.F.M. Conv. after their names. They are ...

) **St Dominic's Priory ( Dominican) * Pilgrim Theological College, Uniting Church *St Athanasius College, Donvale and Melbourne, Victoria *St Barnabas College, Adelaide (

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

) *St Francis College, Brisbane (

) * Trinity College Theological School (

) * Uniting College for Leadership and Theology, the Uniting Church South Australia from January 2023 * Whitley College, Parkville, Victoria. The

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

theological college of Victoria. *Yarra Theological Union, Box Hill, Victoria. Comprises the following

religious institute In the Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public religious vows, vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, a ...

s: **Blessed Sacrament Congregation ** Divine Word Missionaries **

Discalced Carmelites The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel () or the Order of Discalced Carmelites (; abbreviation, abbrev.: OCD; sometimes called in earlier times, ), is a Catho ...

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

(OFM) ** Missionaries of the Sacred Heart ** Pallottines ** Passionists ** Redemptorists * Wollaston College, Mt Claremont, Perth, Western Australia.

Past members

* Evangelical Theological Association, a cooperative venture between Whitley College and Stirling Theological College. *Jesuit College of Spirituality, Parkville, Victoria. The Jesuit Province theological college which joined the Australian Catholic University. * Morling College, Macquarie Park, New South Wales. The

theological college of New South Wales. * Stirling Theological College, Mulgrave, Victoria. The Churches of Christ national theological college. * United Faculty of Theology, Parkville. Victoria until December 2014, a co-operative venture of the Anglican, Jesuit and Uniting theological colleges. The three schools associated with the University are: the School of Indigenous Studies, the School of Graduate Research, and the School of Professional Practice.

Affiliated churches

In 1910

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Congregational Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christianity, Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice Congregationalist polity, congregational ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

Present

Churches of Christ The Churches of Christ, also commonly known as the Church of Christ, is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations located around the world. Typically, their distinguishing beliefs are that of the necessity of baptism for salvation ...

Coptic Orthodox The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the Apostolic see, See of Alexandria i ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Uniting Church in Australia The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) is a united church in Australia. The church was founded on 22 June 1977 when most Wiktionary:congregation, congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church o ...

Academic profile

The University of Divinity offers awards in

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, counselling, ministry,

leadership Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

and professional supervision. In 2001 the institution was listed as a Schedule 1 Higher Education Institution by the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training. It receives federal funding for research, Australian Postgraduate Research Awards and International Postgraduate Research Scholarships. The Higher Education Support Act (2003) (HESA 2003) listed the institution as a Table B (Private, Self-regulating) Higher Education Provider, which allowed its students to access federally funded loans under the FEE-HELP scheme.

Libraries and collections

Students at the university have access and borrowing rights to a number of library collections including the Mannix Library at Catholic Theological College, Geoffrey Blackburn Library at Whitley College, the Leeper and Mollison Libraries at Trinity College Theological School, as well as the Dalton McCaughey Library, the Patrick Murphy Memorial Library, the Redemptorist Seminary Library, the Dominican Studium Library, the St Pashcal Library and the Sugden Collection at Queen's College.

Research and publications

*'' Pacifica'', an academic journal (1988–2017)

Student outcomes

The Australian Government's QILT conducts national surveys documenting the student life cycle from enrolment through to employment. In the 2023 Employer Satisfaction Survey, graduates of the university had an overall employer satisfaction rate of 87.1%. In the 2023 Graduate Outcomes Survey, graduates of the university had a full-time employment rate of 77.8% for undergraduates and 94.6% for postgraduates. In the 2023 Student Experience Survey, undergraduates at the university rated the quality of their entire educational experience at 89.8% meanwhile postgraduates rated their overall education experience at 89.2%.

Notable people

* Andrew McGowan * Anne Elvey * Barbara Thiering * Cathy Ross * Charles Sherlock * Claire Renkin * Colleen O'Reilly * Dorothy Ann Lee * Edith Amelia Kerr * Elizabeth Boase * Fiona Kumari Campbell * Graham Hill * Greg Homeming * Hilda May Abba * Janette Gray * Janina Hiebel * Joan Nowotny * Anne Pattel-Gray * Kate Prowd * Katharine Massam * Kathleen Williams * Kay Goldsworthy * Lilian Scholes * Marita Munro * Mark Stuart Edwards * Mary L. Coloe * Maryanne Confoy * Paul Oslington * Peter Corney * Richard Divall * Ruth Redpath * Sarah Macneil * Wendy Mayer *

Winifred Kiek Winifred Kiek (; 27 July 1884 – 23 May 1975) was the first woman to be ordained in the Christian Ministry in Australia. She was ordained on 13 June 1927 in South Australia to the Congregational Union of Australia (now part of the Uniting Churc ...

Footnotes

References

External links

*
Australian Lutheran CollegeEva Burrows CollegeCatholic Theological CollegePilgrim Theological CollegeJesuit College of SpiritualitySt Athanasius CollegeWhitley College: the Baptist College of VictoriaYarra Theological Union''Pacifica''''University of Divinity Act 1910''
{{authority control Education in Melbourne Universities and colleges established in 1910 Seminaries and theological colleges in Australia Universities in Victoria (state) 1910 establishments in Australia D