Codey Herrmann has pleaded guilty to the murder and rape of Arab-Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe, whose body was found near a tram stop in Melbourne's north in January.

Key points: Codey Herrmann has entered a guilty plea after being charged in January

Codey Herrmann has entered a guilty plea after being charged in January Ms Maasarwe was attacked while returning home from a comedy show

Ms Maasarwe was attacked while returning home from a comedy show Her death prompted an outpouring of grief in Melbourne

The 21-year-old had been travelling home from a night out at a comedy club when she was attacked shortly after midnight on January 16.

Ms Maasarwe was on the phone to her sister when she was attacked on the footpath just after midnight.

Her body was found by passers-by behind a hedge outside a shopping centre, about 100 metres from the Route 86 tram stop, early that morning.

The discovery of her body sparked an intense hunt for her killer before police arrested and charged Herrmann two days later.

Herrmann was arrested by police two days after Ms Maasarwe's body was found. ( ABC News )

Ms Maasarwe had told her family she was enjoying exploring Melbourne. ( Instagram: Aiia Maasarwe )

Appearing in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court via video link this morning, Herrmann, 20, said little except to plead guilty to the charges.

He is scheduled to appear in the Supreme Court next week and will be sentenced at a future date.

Police told the court they had spoken to Ms Maasarwe's family overseas about the court proceedings.

Hundreds of people gathered on the steps of Parliament to pay their respects to Ms Maasarwe after her death. ( ABC News: Gemma Hall )

The vigil for Ms Maasarwe's was held just seven months after a similar vigil for another young murder victim, Eurydice Dixon. ( ABC News: Gemma Hall )

Ms Maasarwe had travelled to Melbourne to undertake a one-year exchange program at La Trobe University.

She was five months into the exchange, which she hoped to use to further her business studies, when she was killed.

Her family said she was an exceptional student who had won prizes for her proficiency in Chinese.

She was on the exchange from her university in Shanghai.

Her murder spurred hundreds of Melburnians to hold a vigil in her memory, during which flowers were laid inside a Route 86 tram as it travelled through the city.

Sorry, this video has expired Aiia Maasarwe's body is laid to rest in her hometown

Banners written in Arabic protesting violence against women were held in Ms Maasarwe's hometown. ( Reuters: Ammar Awad )

Ms Maasarwe was widely remembered by friends and family as an intelligent, friendly, funny and adventurous woman who spoke several languages.

Her father, Saeed, travelled to Melbourne in the week of her death to take her body back to Israel for burial in her hometown.

Through tears, he urged people to embrace his daughter's life philosophy of peace, love and beauty.

Days later, thousands of mourners marched through the streets of the Arab-Israeli town of Baka al Gharbiyye as Ms Maasarwe's body was laid to rest.

Sorry, this video has expired Melburnians took flowers to the spot where Ms Maasarwe's body was found.