Index
RMIT Annual Report
For a printed copy of the 2011 Annual Report, contact RMIT Chancellery.
Annual Reports
- 2011 Annual Report (PDF 5.70 MB)
- 2010 Annual Report (PDF 4.69 MB)
- 2009 Annual Report (PDF 5.06 MB)
- 2008 Annual Report (PDF 4.80 MB)
- 2007 Annual Report (PDF 5.66 MB)
- 2006 Annual Report (PDF 3.60 MB)
- 2005 Annual Report (PDF 4.06 MB)
- 2004 Annual Report (PDF 876 KB)
- 2003 Report of Operations (PDF 4.3 MB)
- 2003 Financial Statements (PDF 1.3 MB)
- 2002 Annual Report (PDF 1.2 MB)
- 2001 Annual Report (PDF 991 KB)
- 2000 Annual Report (PDF 672 KB)
- 2000 Executive Summary (PDF 820 KB)
- 1999 Annual Report (PDF 237 KB)
- 1999 Executive summary (PDF 456 KB)
- 1998 Annual Report (PDF 206 KB)
- 1997 Annual Report (PDF 237 KB)
- 1996 Annual Report (PDF 290 KB)
Vice-Chancellor’s statement
In 2011 RMIT University began implementing its new Strategic Plan to 2015, Transforming the Future. This plan commits RMIT to be recognised as a global university of technology and design.
This Strategic Plan is supported by new academic and research plans. The University’s Academic Plan, Transforming the Student Experience, concentrates on our high impact areas and on our efforts to transform the lives of our students through pathway clusters and by delivering an education that builds professional and vocational capabilities. Our Research Plan, Impact Through Innovation, is also highly focused on increasing the quality, scale and impact of our research activity and outcomes.
Education continues to become more competitive internationally, as institutions world-wide seek to attract students from across the world to their own countries. And while competition for prospective students has continued to increase, RMIT has maintained its position as a world leader in international education. In 2011 we had 11,978 onshore and 17,596 offshore international students. RMIT reaffirmed its excellence in international education, achieving a five star rating in the QS Stars evaluation system.
In 2011 RMIT marked the 10th anniversary of its operations in Vietnam. Starting with only 30 students, RMIT Vietnam now has approximately 6,500 students and is the largest international branch campus of any university in the world. To accommodate this growth, the expansion of the Saigon South Campus continued with the opening of the US$15.2 million recreation and events complex and student accommodation, by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Kevin Rudd MP. RMIT Vietnam was also visited by the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce AC, during the year.
Our investments in improving outcomes in learning, teaching and research continued in 2011. The Learning and Teaching Investment Fund supported 30 projects across the University aimed at enhancing teaching practice and learning outcomes. Unsurprisingly, a number of these focused on improving our own use of technology such as online interactive learning and simulation environments.
The Excellence in Research Australia exercise confirmed RMIT as producing above world standard results in architecture; communication and media studies; human movement and sports science; mechanical engineering; pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences; and urban and regional planning. We built our research outcomes in our areas of focus. During 2011, RMIT had more than 1,500 students undertaking a higher degree by research, and conferred degrees to 227 higher degree by research students including 170 PhDs.
In November, three RMIT researchers were awarded more than $1.3 million in special ARC funding. Dr Anthony O’Mullane (School of Applied Science) was awarded a Future Fellowship for his project that aims to deliver an inexpensive method for producing a class of nanostructured composite materials.
Dr Francisco Tovar and Dr Khashayar Khoshmanesh (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering) each received an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award in recognition of projects employing advanced micro-engineered systems to explore how and why blood clotting occurs.
Notably, China’s largest Chinese medicine hospital, the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, signed a $2 million agreement with RMIT and the Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Studies for research into the use of herbal medicines for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and acupuncture for allergic rhinitis.
Our commitment to transforming the lives of our students was maintained through our various equity and scholarship schemes. A total of 922 SNAP (Schools Network Access Programs) students commenced across all three RMIT Colleges. RMIT awarded more than 2,000 scholarships to its students. The prospects of all our students are considerable, with the 2011 QS World University rankings indicating that RMIT graduates are ranked 51st in the world by prospective employers.
While achieving these outcomes, the University has maintained strong financial discipline. RMIT has again achieved a strong financial result with an overall surplus of $55.3 million on revenue totalling $819 million. With an EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) of 14.4 per cent, RMIT’s performance enables it to continue investing in education and research. In particular, construction of the Design Hub – supported by the Commonwealth through a grant of $28.6 million from the Education Investment Fund – and the Swanston Academic Building continued in 2011. Both will be completed in 2012, transforming the Melbourne City campus.
2011 also saw the opening of the Advanced Manufacturing Precinct and our new lecture theatre in Bundoora, which received support in funding from the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments respectively.
Embarking on the implementation of Transforming the Future has provided renewed focus for the institution to deliver on the promise to be a global university of technology and design. As the most globalised of all Australian universities, with an excellent reputation in both technology and design, I am confident that we can achieve this goal.
Professor Margaret Gardner AO
Vice-Chancellor and President