It may have changed, but Melbourne University had a strong functional programming component at one time. I think personally its the more "computer science" focussed of the choices. The rest are great, but its moving into Networks, Engineering, UI, design, <other>

Monash did more engineering-communications focus because the Telecom Australia Clayton Labs was next door.

RMIT is very pragmatic and design focussed. Swinburne also.

If you want gang-of-5 it has to be Melbourne. If you think you're an engineer it might be Monash. If you want to walk into a job then any of them but RMIT and Swinburne drive hard to make it happen.

I've worked with people from all 4 over the last 35 years. They were all fantastic, skilled, and nice people.

Melbourne is a very urban/urbane experience. It has colleges, and it has Queen Vic Markets and BoHo suburbs like Carlton and Brunswick close by. RMIT is very inner-city vibe. Its architecture is cool (melbourne colleges include ones designed by walter burley griffin) -Monash is a classic campus, it happens to have a ducting tunnel big enough to drive a tractor around, but its more suburban. Swinburne is a bit of both.

Latrobe is also good but more distant.

I want to add that going to university now is very different to my own experience, because I got a full grant, and I walked into a degree with less than 10 students by the end because compsci was a "new" subject. The social aspects of college life are different, the cost of study is different, the mixture of study and work, expectations, class sizes, tutorials, expectations on pre-entry: It's really hard to offer help from my distance and you should preference anyone who responds clearly saying they are closer to 30 than 63.

Several academics I respect are teaching software engineering at Monash, last I checked.

The biggest unknown is future sabbaticals, promotions, etc. I have seen complete shifts in school's focus with the arrival or departure of key academics. It also helps to remember that for the most part adjuncts and junior faculty do most of the teaching during the first 2-3 years of the course. The well regarded experts tend to only teach honours and post-grad track courses.

You could grab the course outline for 2025 and check out the textbooks at the Coop Bookshop. You may notice some overlaps. Furthermore, the "tone" of the textbooks can be a good indication of where the emphasis may lie.

University education focuses on building a solid foundation. Learning to program is a side-effect. Besides, the exercises and projects are nothing like real-world software projects.