Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE, generally known as Batchelor Institute and formerly known as Batchelor College) provides training and

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is additional education to that received at secondary school that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...

, and

higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

for

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

and

Torres Strait Islanders Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...

. It is based in Kungarakany and

Awarai The Awarai (Warray) are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. Language The Norwegian explorer Knut Dahl wrote down a short list of vocabulary of the Awarai language. Country The Awarai tribal lands took in some of territ ...

country, in

Batchelor, Northern Territory Batchelor is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia. The town is the current seat and largest town of the Coomalie Shire local government area. It is located south of the territory capital, Darwin. The first inhabitants and traditional ...

in Australia. Batchelor Institute is classified as a 'Table A'

tertiary education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

provider. Like an increasing number of universities, Batchelor Institute is a dual-sector institution, providing higher education and vocational education and training courses. The Institute is the first Indigenous-controlled higher education institution in Australia. It is also unusual in that most of its students are over 30 years of age, and a high proportion of its students are female.

History

Batchelor Institute began in the mid-1960s as an annex of

Kormilda College Haileybury Rendall School is an independent co-educational early learning, primary and secondary day school located in the suburb of , in the Northern Territory of Australia. Haileybury Rendall School has the capacity for 600 students and as ...

, a residential school for Aboriginal students on the outskirts of

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( Larrakia: ') is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. The city has nearly 53% of the Northern Territory's population, with 139,902 at the 2021 census. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australi ...

. Short training programs were provided for Aboriginal teacher aides and assistants in community schools. In 1973 the Commonwealth government allowed Indigenous communities to determine the educational approach they wanted for their children, including bilingual education. In 1974, the college moved to Batchelor (100 kilometres south of Darwin), a town of about 500 people. It has been at its present site since 1982. A community-based teacher education program established at

Yirrkala Yirrkala is a small community in East Arnhem Region, Northern Territory, Australia, southeast of the large mining town of Nhulunbuy, on the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land. Its population comprises predominantly Aboriginal Australians of th ...

in 1976, was later extended to become the Remote Area Teacher Education (RATE) program, and in 1986 Batchelor College entered into a partnership with

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

(Melbourne) to deliver a teaching qualification known as Deakin Batchelor Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (DBATE). A second campus of the college was established in

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

in 1990 to address the educational needs of Aboriginal people from

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...

. Other annexes were opened in Darwin,

Nhulunbuy Nhulunbuy () is a town and locality in the far north of the Northern Territory of Australia. Founded on the Gove Peninsula in north-east Arnhem Land when a bauxite mine and deep water port were established in the late 1960s, the town's econ ...

Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...

and

Tennant Creek Tennant Creek () is a town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the Northern Territory#Cities and towns, seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with ...

. The

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

recognised Batchelor College as an accredited independent higher education institution through the Higher Education Funding Act 1988 and provided funding through the Higher Education Support Act 2003. This meant that BIITE could issue its own degrees and other tertiary qualifications without outside involvement, in the same way as universities, and also be funded like them.

Campuses and annexes

Batchelor Institute has 15 locations throughout the Northern Territory.

Campus/annex locations

* Batchelor * Darwin *

Study centre locations

Borroloola Borroloola () is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the McArthur River, about upstream from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Location Borroloola lies on the traditional country of the Yanyuwa people, on the coastal plain ...

Gunbalanya Gunbalanya (also spelt Kunbarlanja, and historically referred to as Oenpelli) is a town in west Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, about east of Darwin. The main language spoken in the community is Kunwinjku (a dialect of Bin ...

Maningrida Maningrida ( Ndjébanna: ''Manayingkarírra'', Kuninjku: ''Manawukan'') is an Aboriginal community in the heart of the Arnhem Land region of Australia's Northern Territory. Maningrida is east of Darwin, and north east of Jabiru. It is on ...

Ngukurr Ngukurr ( , ), formerly Roper River Mission (1908−1968), is a remote Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal community on the banks of the Roper River in southern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. A number of different clans and language groups are ...

* Nyirripi *

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

Learning centre locations

Angurugu Angurugu is a community located on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory, Australia. The main spoken languages are Anindilyakwa, an Australian Aboriginal language, and English. Established as a Mission for the Church Mission Society, it is ...

Wadeye Wadeye ( ) is a town in Australia's Northern Territory (NT). It was formerly known (and is still often referred to) as Port Keats, a name originating from Port Keats Mission, which operated from 1935 (originally at a different location, known as ...

References

External links

* {{authority control, state=collapsed Indigenous Australian education Education in the Northern Territory Australian tertiary institutions Australian vocational education and training providers Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory