_Last week (October 17, 2001) Professor John Baird, Dean of Engineering at the Australian National University, transmitted an open letter to the Prime Minister, John Howard, on behalf of the Group of Eight Deans of Engineering "emphasis[ing]  the urgent need for investment in the research-intensive faculties of engineering in our leading universities." Among other matters the engineering deans pointed out, "Our engineering faculties play a major role in the nation's development and we will not be able to maintain current standards without urgent investment in the operations and infrastructure that underpin teaching and research in engineering. Australia’s engineering faculties now have very high student/staff ratios and very low academic staff salaries and research support compared with other technologically advanced countries." The engineers urged Mr. Howard to show leadership toward upgrading engineering faculties pointing out, "The consequences of inaction will disadvantage all Australians."

In the 500 word letter Professor Baird made no reference to the findings of the Senate Committee charged with determining "The Capacity of Public Universities to Meet Australia’s Higher Education Needs." Perhaps not surprising considering the flat rejection by the committee's two Liberal Senators (Tierney and Brandis) of the recommendations. Nevertheless, professional engineering associations figured substantially in submissions made to the committee and it's of interest to examine the report.

For example they point out, "courses that offer higher than average levels of private return, such as accountancy, information and communications technology (ICT) and engineering, are said to also provide a high level of public good." ^[p.41]

And later, "Evidence to the Committee from a wide range of industry and professional associations as well as from the Department of Defence, and state governments also indicated that there is a serious under-supply of graduates in many disciplines from engineering to information and communications technology, accountancy, nursing, teaching and areas of the health sciences." ^[p55].  Furthermore, "in 1998 [tertiary institutional]  libraries cancelled $9 million worth of subscriptions and planned to cancel a further $6 million in 1999. Most journals affected were in the fields of science, engineering, technology and medicine." ^[p.60]

The President of the Council of Engineering Deans complained, "that he spent at least 30 per cent of his time seeking external support, such as, for example, endowed chairs, scholarships and similar funding. Time spent on these activities is time not spent on undertaking core teaching or research activities."^[p.70]  And Professor Barry Brady of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans told the committee that "International students comprise 50 per cent of the total in a program in electrical engineering in Melbourne, with the result that the viability of the program is "absolutely dependent" on those students."^[p73]  A picture of increasing disavowal of responsibility for engineering studies by the Commonwealth Government emerges. Quite simply, engineers work principally in the private sector so it should bear the burden of engineering education. As a result, Australia appears to be the meat in the sandwich. The fact that "there is a disincentive for universities to transfer places to higher cost courses such as computing and engineering, because they will not be compensated for the additional costs" exacerbates the problem ^[p86].

The Committee was told that Professor Tony Klein, the Australian Institute of Physics representative to National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA), wrote to the NATA in August 2000, "I regret to inform the NATA Council that it would not be safe to assume that today's graduates in engineering from most of Australia's universities will have been exposed to even the most rudimentary practical training in physics. It is therefore up to individual member laboratories to ensure that adequate training is given to new staff in the use of scientific measuring instruments, the practical techniques of measurement, the estimation of errors, and other such basic matters which could have been taken for granted in the past." ^[p151]. And this point was reiterated later in the hearings -- Australian engineering students currently receive the most rudimentary training in physics. And yes, you read right, physics faculties are so strapped they cannot provide the courses. Will it really take a catastrophic engineering disaster to undue the damage being perpetrated by the Government on engineering and physics faculties, particularly at our major universities?

 And it gets worse; Professors Brady and  John Agnew  told the committee,

In first year maths for engineering we do not have tutorials. We had a review of the department of maths and statistics last year and in the transition year from school to university, when things are pretty tough for students, we cannot afford to provide first year tutorials in mathematics. It is a disaster.

I would say that laboratory work is being cut back in all schools. How you can produce an engineering graduate who has not had hands-on experience in laboratory work is beyond me. It is getting to the point where it is not possible to maintain the facilities for the number of students and not update those facilities -- in other words, not provide current equipment and current technology. The trend has to be to cut back. The lectures are still given and we still have the quality teaching but it is that practical component and, also, the support that the staff are able to give the students in the learning process that is suffering.^[p151-52]

Continuing on the practical side, the committee was told, "The neglect of laboratory infrastructure was a particular concern to the deans of science and engineering. The practical base of these disciplines requires continuing maintenance and frequent upgrading of expensive laboratory facilities. As the infrastructure used for undergraduate teaching is funded from recurrent income, maintenance and upgrading are being neglected, with expenditure on computing facilities consuming additional funds at the expense of laboratories." Professor Brady continued, "In terms of our laboratory infrastructure, if you have been to Singapore, for example, and had a look at the polytechnics -- not the universities -- you would have seen that the standard of infrastructure in our engineering laboratories is lower than it is in the Singapore polytechs. The fact is that the only thing that allows us to deliver competitive programs in our best engineering schools is the quality of our staff -- not our laboratories. There has been no substantial investment in laboratory equipment over the last 10 years." ^[p162] The report again refers to Professor Brady who went on to explain "that university engineering departments in Australia are no longer able to offer salaries to academics that are internationally competitive, and that their best staff - until now their main area of advantage - are now being 'recruited away.'" ^[p187]

And later, "Recruitment and retention of staff remains a worrying challenge to universities. It is an issue which is mainly tied to the question of salaries. Universities are finding it increasingly difficult to attract and retain excellent teaching staff in a number of key areas. Among these are engineering, accountancy, pharmacy and information technology. The reason is that the salaries paid to university staff do not compare with those offered outside in these key areas of high employment demand." ^[p298]

Another problem entailed by the forced chasing of private sector money is "an over-reliance on industry funding [which] carries with it a range of limitations, including reduced institutional discretion in the use of funds, and a distortion of research effort towards those disciplines with most relevance to industry, and away from both the humanities and the basic 'or enabling' sciences, particularly mathematics and, to a lesser extent, physics. In the longer term, this is likely to lead to an erosion of the research capacity in areas that underpin research capacity in the more applied sciences such as engineering as well as in the humanities." ^[p201]

Following on comments made by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, John Niland, the committee raps the Government on the knuckles, "While the Government has cited the increasing numbers of international students as an indication of the quality and high standing of our university system, the Committee heard from the University of New South Wales that much of the recent growth was a factor of the falling value of the Australian dollar. Any rise the dollar's value was likely to see growth plateau and numbers perhaps fall. This would create problems for those universities and faculties, such as the engineering program at the University of Melbourne, that had become totally dependent on the international program for their continued viability." ^[p357] Apparently the 'export' of our tertiary education is comparable to the attractiveness overseas of our primary produce dependent primarily on the cheapness of the product.

It's a cogent and disheartening comment on the Government's comprehension of tertiary education that while throttling the core disciplines, particularly the more fundamental and abstract areas of learning, they are progressively diminishing all facets of engineering with its immediate rewards for the common wealth. In due course the acute current world crisis will diminish but unless there is a sharp reversal in the Government's approach, the chronic carnage perpetrated on our tertiary education system will continue.