Melbourne Tech City

Melbourne produces more ICT graduates than any other Australian city. It has the country's biggest pipeline of fresh ICT talent, led by world-class universities and advanced technical colleges. Over one-third of Australia's ICT postgraduates studied at a Victorian university.¹

Industry based learning is a primary focus for post-secondary education and training institutions. Graduates of Melbourne's well regulated and vibrant technical colleges receive nationally recognised qualifications for over 1,400 accredited courses.  Melbourne recently ranked first in the global human capital and lifestyle index.²

Melbourne proudly sees itself as a 'knowledge city'. Melbourne is the leading education destination for international students ranking as one of the world's top five student cities.³

In the wider context, the global talent index recently ranked Australia as first in the Asia Pacific region.4 Global talent contributes to Melbourne's world‑class skills pipeline.  Annually, over 2,500 international ICT graduates and many short‑term ICT specialist workers add to the rich mix of available skills.⁵

• Victoria produces more information technology graduates and has more ICT students than any other Australian state.⁷
• Melbourne has world-class universities. A recent national report into research excellence (produced by the Australian Research Council) in the information and computing sciences recognises Monash University's performance as 'above world standard', and the University of Melbourne's as 'delivering outstanding performance, well above world standard'.⁸
• Victoria partners universities and the tertiary sector with international and national technology companies to produce world-class infrastructure and connectivity.

The Victorian state government gives strong support to the sector. Victoria has among the lowest rate of business tax of any Australian state. It also offers investors some of the world's most generous R&D support in a cost-competitive business environment. As a result, KPMG ranks Melbourne as having the most attractive R&D location costs in the Asia Pacific.⁶

• In Australia, 93 per cent of businesses have internet access, and 99.6 per cent of these use broadband as their main type of internet connection.⁹
• 83 percent of households have access to the internet and of these 93 per cent use broadband.¹⁰
• Telecommunication infrastructure was deregulated in Australia in 1992, and the industry is left to market forces.

The national broadband network (NBN) is one the largest infrastructure projects in Australia's history, and one of the largest broadband networks in the world. The project will provide high-speed broadband

• access to Australian homes and businesses via fibre to the node (FTTN) services.
• Melbourne is the technology hub for NBN Co, hosting the NBN Co National Operations Centre (NOC) and the backup NOC.
• Generous R&D benefits from a government serious about ICT