Blog Interview: Rhys Bezzant – Ridley College Melbourne

My name is Rhys Bezzant, and I began as Principal of Ridley College Melbourne in 2025! I have been teaching Church History, Theology, and Christian Worship at the College since 2004. Before that, I served as an Anglican minister in university student settings.

Tell us a little about Ridley College

Ridley has been around since 1910, training men and women for all kinds of Christian ministry, especially ordination in the Anglican Church, service with the Church Missionary Society, and work on university campuses. We teach all sorts of courses, from one year diplomas to doctoral programs. We have around 400 students enrolled, averaging around 150 effective fulltime students.

Are the courses full time, part-time or a mixture of both?

Students at Ridley can enroll in one unit of study or up to four units per semester – and this might vary in the course of their studies. We offer a free online certificate to encourage lay leadership in churches, and it is possible to audit units as well.

How do Ridley College students fund their studies?

The Australian government offers a loan scheme for theological student fees. Otherwise students might work in their previous profession a few days a week, or work in their church and youth ministry to help them pay their bills. We have just launched an appeal to raise $10,000,000 to offer some full-time students an annual living allowance. Melbourne is an expensive city to live in!

Does Ridley College take students from overseas?

We do welcome students from overseas, and we have a good number of doctoral students from around the world.

What type of ministry is Ridley College intended to prepare students for?

We want to train lay people to be effective in their service of the local church and in their secular workplace, as well as nurturing the calling of students who want to pursue vocational ministry of the Word.

When students leave Ridley College what kind of ministries / jobs do they go into

All sorts! Ridley graduates can be found in local churches, in schools as chaplains, on campuses as evangelists, and in Bible translation. Some return to their previous job as a teacher, doctor, or in sales.

What is distinctive about what Ridley College offers compared with other colleges in Australia and overseas?

Ridley is a College with specialist faculty who are also readily accessible to students – not a common combination! We run Chapel services each day of the week including a sermon, are seeking to provide further financial support for students who want an immersive experience of theological study, and though we are Anglican, our student cohort is diverse. We come from lots of different evangelical tribes and church denominations. So rich!

Please tell us about the library and other research facilities

The Leon Morris Library – named after a great 20^th century NT scholar – is one of the largest theological libraries in Australia. We house the Jonathan Edwards Center, a satellite of Yale University Divinity School, for research in the history of evangelicalism.

Does Ridley College offer a distance or on-line learning option?

Ridley Online is the leading provider of online theological education in Australia, with students enrolled in the program around the world. All the online learning is built around videos filmed in a studio or on location elsewhere, shaped by our specialist educational designer. We do not merely livestream a lecture from a classroom, but start from scratch to create material which will be effective for learning outside of Melbourne.