RMIT award abbreviations

Guideline

Intent

Award abbreviations are the letters that graduates may put after their name to indicate their academic achievements. The purpose of these guidelines is to describe the form of letters recommended by RMIT for graduates of RMIT awards.

Scope

These guidelines are broadly applicable to all graduates of RMIT who wish to indicate the award they have received by using the appropriate letters after their name. General guidance only is provided for TAFE awards up to and including Certificate IV. Detailed guidance is provided for TAFE Diploma and Advanced Diploma graduates, and for graduates of all RMIT Higher Education awards.

Guidelines

Attached to this document are two tables that should be referred to when constructing award abbreviations:

• Table 1 presents listings of recommended award level abbreviations, and
• Table 2 presents listings of recommended discipline/field of study abbreviations.

The award level can be selected from Table 1; the discipline/field of study selected from Table 2 and the two combined (award level followed by field of study) to produce an appropriate award abbreviation. Majors are not to be included in award abbreviations. Any graduates with award titles containing words that do not appear in these tables may contact the Academic Registrar’s Office for advice.

The following protocols should be observed when determining such abbreviations:

• Abbreviations and acronyms should be meaningful but as short as possible
• An abbreviation for a single discipline/field of study should not normally exceed six characters
• Duplication of the same abbreviated form for unrelated disciplines should be avoided wherever possible
• Accepted international form should be used where possible
• There should be no spaces (e.g. BSc not B Sc) or punctuation marks (including full stops, slashes, dashes, etc) between the letters
• The first letter of each abbreviated word should normally be capitalised
• An abbreviated form of the name of the university or institution that conferred the award may be placed after the award abbreviation.

Order of qualifications

The convention recommended by RMIT is:

• Lower degree should precede higher degree, e.g. BEng, MAppSc RMIT
• Group all degrees from each institute, e.g. DipA, MA RMIT, BSc Melb
• Graduate and postgraduate diplomas should be placed after degrees e.g. BBus, MBA RMIT, DipEd Melb
• Associate diplomas should be placed after degrees, e.g. BArch, AssocDipMath RMIT
• Associateship and fellowship diplomas should be placed after other academic awards and before professional awards and affiliations, e.g. BSocSc RMIT, ARMIT, ALAA
• Professional qualifications and affiliations should be placed after academic qualifications, e.g. BSc Qld, PhD RMIT., ARACI

Honorary degrees

A person who has received an honorary doctorate from RMIT is entitled to use the award title preceded by 'Hon' - e.g. J.Smith HonDAppSc RMIT.

Higher Education

Award Level	Abbreviation
Diploma	Dip
Associate Degree	AssocDeg
Bachelor	B
Bachelor Honours year programs:	BDiscipline(Hons)
Graduate Certificate	GradCert
Graduate Diploma	GradDip
Master	M
Juris Doctor	JD
Doctor of Business Administration	DBA
Doctor of Education	DEd
Doctor of Fine Art	DFA
Doctorate in Organisation	DOrg
Doctor of Project Management	DPM
Doctor of Psychology	DPsych
Doctor	D
Doctor of Philosophy	PhD

TAFE

Award Level	Abbreviation
Certificate	Cert
Certificate I	CertI
Certificate II	CertII
Certificate III	CertIII
Certificate IV	CertIV
Diploma	Dip
Advanced Diploma	AdvDip
Graduate Certificate	GradCert

Historical (Non-Current) TAFE award levels

Award level	Abbreviation
Certificate of Applied Science	CAS
Certificate of Business Studies	CBS
Certificate of Technology	COT
Advanced Certificate	AdvCert
Associate Diploma	AssocDip

Associateship and fellowship diplomas

RMIT’s name has changed over the years. The appropriate abbreviated forms for associateship and fellowship diplomas differed according to the name of the institution at the time of conferring. Graduates who had these diplomas conferred according to the following dates are entitled to use the letters as shown below. These awards are no longer offered, having been phased out through the 1970s.

Timeframe	Associateship diploma	Fellowship diploma
a) Prior to 14 September 1954(Melbourne Technical College)	AMTC	FMTC
b) From 14 September 1954 to 21 December 1960 inclusive (Royal Melbourne Technical College)	ARMTC	FRMTC
c) After 21 December 1960 (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)	ARMIT	FRMIT

The abbreviations listed below are those currently in use at RMIT or are the accepted form for Commonwealth universities. In some cases more than one abbreviated form is in current use at RMIT. In these instances, all are listed.

Discipline/Field of study	Abbreviation
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander	ATSI
Accountancy Accounting	Acc
Acupuncture	Acu
Administration Administrative	Adm
Adolescent	Adol
Adult	Adult
Advertising	Advtg
Aeronautical Aeroskills Aerospace	Aero
Affairs	Af
Agricultural	Agric
Air Aircraft Airline	Air
Animal	Anim
Animation	An
Application/s	Applic
Applied	App
Architectural Architecture	Arch
Art Arts	A or Arts
Assessment	Assess
Assurance	Ass
Audio	Audio
Audiometry	Aud
Audio-visual	AV
Auditing	Audit
Australian	Aus
Automated Automatic Automotive	Auto
Aviation	Avn or Aviation
Aviation Industry Management	AIM
Avionics	Avs
Banking	Bank
Behavioural	Behav
Bioinformatics	Bioinf
Biological Biology	Biol
Biomedical	Biomed
Biomolecular	Biomol
Biophysical	Biophys
Biotechnology	Biotech
Building	Bldg
Built	Blt
Business	Bus
Business Administration	BA
Business Information Systems	BIS
Business Information Technology	BIT
Care	Care
Careers	Car
Cartography	Cart
Chain	Cha
Chemical	Chemical
Chemistry	Chem
Child Childhood Children	Child
Chinese	Chin
Chiropractic	Chiro
Civil	Civ
Clinical	Clin
Clothing	Cloth
Commerce Commercial Commercialisation	Com
Communication/s	Comm
Community	C
Competitive	Compet
Complementary	Compl
Computer Computing Computational	Comp
Conservation	Con
Construction	Const
Consumer	Cons
Consultancy	Consul
Control	Cont
Conveyancing	Convey
Counselling	Counsel
Creative	Creat
Criminal	Crim
Critical	Crit
Cultural	Cult
Custom/s	Cust
Decoration	Decn
Dental	Dent
Design	Des
Development	Dev
Digital	Dig
Disability	Disab
Dispute	Disp
Drafting	Draft
Dynamics	Dyn
Early	Earl
Ecological	Ecol
eCommerce	eCom
Economic/s	Ec
Editing	Edit
Education/al	Ed
Electric/al	Elec
Electronic/s	Elect
Electrotechnology	Electech
Embedded	Embed
Emergency	Emerg
Employment	Emp
Energy	En
Engineering	Eng
English	Engl
English as a Second Language	ESL
Enterprise	Ent
Entrepreneurship	Entr
Environment/al	Env
Executive	Exec
Exercise	Ex
Facilities	Fac
Family	Fam
Fashion	Fash
Film	Film
Finance Financial	Fin
Fine	Fine
Fine Art	FA
Flexible	Flex
Food	Food
Footwear	Fw
Frontline Management	FLM
Furniture Furnishing	Furn
Games	Gam
Geography Geographical	Geog
Geology Geological	Geol
Geomatics	Geomat
Geospatial	Geosp
Gerontology	Geron
Governance Government	Gov
Graphic/s	Gr
Health	H
Herbal	Herb
Higher	Higher
Hospitality	Hosp
Hotel	Ho
Human	Hum
Human Resource Management	HRM
Imaging	Im
Industrial Relations	IR
Industrial Industries Industry	Ind
Infection	Infec
Information	Inf or Info
Information Systems	IS
Information Technology	IT
Infrastructure	Infra
Innovation	Innov
Instrumentation	Instr
Intellectual	Intel
Integrated	Integ
Interactive	Interac
Interior	Int
Intermediate	Intmed
International	Intl
Internet	Intern
Interpreting	Interp
Introduction Introductory	Intro
Japanese	Jap
Journalism	Jour
Justice	Just
Knowledge	Know
Laboratory	Lab
Lactation	Lact
Land	Land
Landscape	L or Lscape
Language	L or Lang
Language Other Than English	LOTE
Law	Law
Leadership	Lead
Learning	Learn
Legal	Leg
Linguistics	Ling
Logistics	Log
Mandarin	Mand
Maintenance	Maint
Management	Mgt
Manufacturing	Man
Marketing	Mktg
Mass	Mass
Massage	Massg
Mathematical Mathematics	Math
Mechanical Mechatronics	Mech
Media	Media
Medical Medicine	M or Med
Mental	Ment
Merchandising	Merch
Microbiology	Microb
Microelectronic	Microelec
Midwifery	Mid
Movement	Move
Multicultural	Multicul
Multimedia	Multimed
Musculoskeletal	Musc
Music	Mus
Nanotechnology	Nano
Network/ing	Net
Neurophysiology	Neuroph
Neuroscience	Neurosc
Nuclear	Nuc
Nursing	Nurs
Nutrition	Nutr
Occupational	Oc
Occupational Health and Safety	OHS
Operational Operations	Op
Optical	Opt
Organisation	Org
Orientation	Or
Osteopathic Osteopathy	Osteo
Paediatric	Paed
Palliative	Pall
Performing	Perf
Perioperative	Periop
Pharmaceutical	Pharm
Philosophy	Ph
Photography	Photo
Photoimaging	Photoim
Physical	Physl
Physics	Phys
Pilot	Pil
Planning	Plan
Plant	Plant
Policy	Pol
Polymer	Poly
Practice	Prac
Primary	Prim
Print/ing	Print
Process/ing	Proc
Product/ion	Prod
Professional/s	Prof
Programming	Prog
Project	Proj
Project Management	PM
Property	Prop
Prosthetics	Pros
Psychiatric	Psychi
Psychology	Psych
Public	P or Pub
Public Relations	PR
Publishing	Publ
Quality	Qual
Radiations	Rad
Recreation	Rec
Rehabilitation	Rehab
Relations	R or Rel
Remedial	Rem
Research	Res
Resource	R or Resou
Rights	Rts
Risk	Risk
Safety	Saf
Sales	Sal
School	Sch
Science/s Scientific	Sc
Screen	Scr
Screenwriting	ScrWrit
Secondary	Sec
Sector	Sect
Security	Secu
Service/s	Serv
Simulation	Sim
Small	Small
Social	Soc
Software	Soft
Sonography	Son
Spanish	Span
Space Spatial	Sp
Statistical Statistics	Stat
Structural Structures	Struct
Studies	St
Studio	Stu
Supply	Sup
Support	Supp
Surveying	Surv
Sustainable Sustainability	Sust
Systems/s	Sys
Teaching	Teach
Technical Technician	Tech
Technologies Technology	Tech
Telecommunication/s	Telecom
Television	TV
Tertiary	Tert
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages	TESOL
Textile/s	Text
Tourism	Tour
Toxicology	Tox
Trade	Tr
Traineeship Training	Train
Translating	Trans
Transport	Tport
Ultrasonography	Ultrason
University	Univ
Urban	Urb
Valuation/s	Val
Vehicle	Veh
Visual/isation	V or Vis
Vocational	Voc
Web	Web
Wellness	Well
Work	Wk
Writing Written	Writ
Youth	Y

Other abbreviations

	Abbreviation
Advanced	Adv
And	&
Applied	App
Distinction	Distinct
Further	Furth
General	Gen
Honours	Hons

Further information

Please contact the Senior Advisor, Academic Policy and Governance, Academic Registrar’s group.

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