Australian Catholic University

 ST. PATRICK’S CAMPUS, FITZROY 

“FROM SCHOOLYARD TO CAMPUS” 

ACU – Fitzroy Campus

ACU first began in 1991 as a result of the amalgamation of a number of Catholic tertiary institutions. The second campus of the national Australian Catholic University is its St Patrick’s campus in Fitzroy which opened in 2001. ACU is publicly funded (like all universities), is open to those of all faiths and no faith but its culture is demonstrably consistent with Catholic social teaching. Its main courses of study are nursing, teaching, social justice law, philosophy and theology. It currently educates 10,000 students and employs 600 staff members.

The Campus has been built on sites north of Victoria Parade including those of the Australian Mint and the Tram Terminus familiar to generations of SPJC students, and also uses a refurbished Cathedral Hall and the Knox Centre in our former SPC schoolyard. A room within Cathedral Hall has been set aside by ACU for the sole use of SPOCA. It is used regularly for meetings and is also a storage/display area for Association and College records and memorabilia.

Excellent relations were established with then Associate Vice-Chancellor Dr John Ballard, who spoke at the 2017 SPOCA Annual Dinner, during which he accepted twenty images of SPC school life for display in the entry foyer of Cathedral Hall and made available relevant ACU facilities for our event, later this year, recognizing the 50 years since SPC closure. The current Vice-Chancellor and the other ACU staff members continue that mutually supportive connection between our two organizations.

More details about ACU are available from the website ...

http://www.acu.edu.au/about_acu/campuses/melbourne

ACU/SPOCA Scholarship

The first SPOCA scholarship was awarded in 2020. The successful recipients for each year are listed on the Scholarship Recipients page, along with something of their background stories. 

Background to Creation of the Scholarship

In 2018, the Vice Chancellor asked if SPOCA would be interested in helping to fund a perpetual scholarship which would further preserve the “St Patrick’s Jesuit College” name on Eastern Hill. The annual award would be given to a worthy student who received marks of a high standard and demonstrated a strong commitment to the pursuit of social justice, the ethos of SPJC and of the Jesuits who taught there for 103 years.

The background documents and discussion papers leading to the establishment of the scholarship can be viewed in the Scholarship Development section.

Each year, the ACU produces a Report outlining the importance of the many donated Scholarships, including the one provided by SPOCA, which the university awards annually. The 2020 and 2021 Reports can be viewed using the underlined links.