Type | Private, Christian |
---|---|
Established | 1910 |
President | Philip Freier |
Principal | Brian Rosner |
Students | 400+ |
Location | Melbourne, Australia |
Campus | Parkville, Victoria |
Website | www.ridley.edu.au/ |
Ridley College, formerly known as Ridley Melbourne, is a Christian theological college in the parklands of central Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1910, it has an evangelical foundation and outlook and is affiliated with the Australian College of Theology and the Anglican Church of Australia. The college offers on-campus and distance learning and provides training for various Christian ministries in a range of contexts.
Named after a 16th-century English Reformation martyr, Nicholas Ridley, Ridley College was established on 1 March 1910 to provide residential theological training. Its founders were evangelical Anglican clergy and laypeople from throughout Victoria. Ridley College's principals have included the prominent New Testament scholar Leon Morris (1914–2006; principal 1964–1979), known for his studies of the atonement.
For much of its history, a main feature of Ridley College was its residential college, with students accommodated mainly in the Aiken and Baker buildings. Like other residential colleges in the area, it provided its students with a range of academic, social and religious programs. From 1965 to 2005, Ridley was an affiliated residential college of the University of Melbourne and, in 1972, it became the first of the university's colleges open to both men and women. In 2005, the residential college was closed due to rising costs. The following year, it was reopened to provide accommodation specifically for international students from the surrounding universities, the University of Melbourne, RMIT University and Monash University. The residential college was again closed at the end of 2007. Ridley Melbourne retains a small residential theological community in the renamed Baker building (formerly Bearham).