It was originally titled The Catalyst: College News (later shortened to Catalyst Student News), and envisioned as a newspaper for the Chemistry School (hence the chemical flavour of the title and early articles), but quickly expanded to cover the whole of the Melbourne Technical College.

Also, one issue per year from 1995-1997 was published collectively with student newspapers of other tertiary institutions in Victoria as VICE: The Victorian Inter Campus Edition.

Catalyst benefits from its proximity to the RMIT School of Media and Communication, which runs a highly regarded journalism program.

Notable former editors of Catalyst include journalists Dewi Cooke, Dan Harrison (both now with The Age), Patricia Karvelas and Elizabeth Gallagher.

Each episode of Cataclysm also includes a series of regular segments alongside the themed feature stories.