University of Divinity

ABOUT UNIVERSITY

The University of Divinity is an Australian collegiate university that specialises in divinity and related disciplines, continuing the legacy of the Melbourne College of Divinity, the second oldest degree-granting authority in Victoria. It is made up of twelve theological colleges representing seven Christian denominations along with three schools, creating a collaborative network for theological education and research. The university’s administration is based in Box Hill, a suburb of Melbourne in the state of Victoria. Its origins trace back to 1910 when the Melbourne College of Divinity was established through an act of the Parliament of Victoria, which was amended multiple times in 1956, 1972, 1979, 1990, 2005 and 2016. From the start, the college had the authority to accredit and issue its own degrees even before it achieved university status in 2011. It was formed by representatives of several churches who aimed to provide formal tertiary-level theological studies. The first president was the Right Reverend Henry Lowther Clarke, the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, and the first registrar was the Reverend John Mathew, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. In 2010, the institution applied to the Victorian Regulation and Qualifications Authority to become an Australian University of Specialisation, a category for self-accrediting higher education providers. The Victorian government approved the application in August 2011, and beginning 1 January 2012 the college officially operated as the University of Divinity, with Peter Sherlock appointed as its first vice-chancellor in April 2012. In 2019, TEQSA extended its seven-year licence by another three years, granting the full ten-year period before another review. On 1 July 2021, TEQSA reclassified the University of Divinity from an Australian University of Specialisation to a full Australian University with self-accrediting powers in the broad field of Society and Culture. In the 2022 Student Experience Survey, it achieved the highest overall student satisfaction in Australia with a score of 91.