The University of Ballarat is a dual-sector university in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It was formed by the passage of an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1994, from the Ballarat College of Advanced Education. It subsequently merged with the Ballarat School of Mines and Industries (1870) and the Horsham based Wimmera Institute of TAFE in 1998 to create a larger University. According to the university's records as of 2008, there were 25,810 students consisting of 13,820 higher education students and 11,990 Technical and Further Education students. The report states that 11,460 students are at the Ballarat campus, but does not differentiate between higher education students and Technical and Further Education students. In terms of higher degrees, there were 6,145 masters students, which is more numerous than the 6,048 bachelor students. In terms of students who are not located on a campus of the university, there were 12,481 students with partnership institutions such as the Melbourne Institute of Technology. The University of Ballarat has a long history that goes back to the famous gold rush era of the 1850s.