Batchelor Institute began in the mid-1960s as an annex of
Kormilda College, a residential school for Aboriginal students on the outskirts of
Darwin, Northern Territory. 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. A second campus of the college was established in
Alice Springs in 1990 to address the educational needs of Aboriginal people from
Central Australia. Other annexes were opened in Darwin,
Nhulunbuy,
Katherine and
Tennant Creek. The
Australian Government 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==