Australian College of Theology

Australian College of Theology

Type	Theological consortium
Established	1891
Religious affiliation	Anglican Church of Australia
Location	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Website	actheology.edu.au

The Australian College of Theology (ACT) is an Australian higher education provider delivering awards in ministry and theology. The college was one of the first Australian non-university providers to offer an accredited bachelor's degree and a research doctorate. Over 16,000 people have graduated since the foundation of the college, one-third of these since 2006. It is a company limited by guarantee as of September 2007.

The primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, the Most Reverend Philip Freier, the Archbishop of Melbourne, presides as chairman at a general meeting of the Australian College of Theology Limited. He also served as the chair of the directors from 2002 until May 2008. His successor was David Barr AM, who served as chair until 2014. The current chair is Richard Cardew.

The current dean is the Revd Martin Sutherland. He replaced the Revd Mark Harding.

The college was established by the 1891 General Synod of the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania. The college was founded in order to provide for the "systematic study of divinity", especially among clergy and ordination candidates, there being no realistic opportunities for them to earn a Bachelor of Divinity (BD) degree at English universities.

The ACT is a national consortium of affiliated colleges with 16 theological and Bible colleges approved to deliver its accredited courses. Over 1,500 equivalent full-time students, or over 3,000 individual active students and research candidates, are enrolled in courses each year.

On 12 November 2004, the delegate of the Minister for Education, Science and Training approved the college as a higher education provider (HEP) under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (Cth). This approval took effect in March 2005. As a HEP, the ACT administers the FEE-HELP program, by which students enrolled in accredited higher education courses of the ACT may receive an income contingent loan for their tuition fees.