Australia’s largest universities are calling on the government to take urgent action to double the numbers of engineering graduates in order to avert an infrastructure crisis. In an industry summit run by the ‘Group of Eight’ universities and attended by engineering companies, delegates sought to identify the policy levers that could prevent a skills crisis. It said that without action government infrastructure plans were at risk.

“The Australian model for the university education of engineers is broken and maintaining the status quo is simply not an option,” said Go8 Chief Executive Vicki Thomson. “Australia’s demand for engineers is set to increase dramatically.  The success of the government’s agenda which includes a nuclear submarine build, the Modern Manufacturing Strategy, the National Hydrogen Roadmap and the Australian Civil Space Strategy, is absolutely dependent upon increasing our domestic engineering workforce.”

Unless this happens, warned Thomason, none of those projects and policies can or will be realised. “Industry is telling us that we need to double the number of domestically educated engineers. There is absolutely no doubt that the Government’s Job Ready Graduate package, which cut funding by 16 percent has been a deterrent to increasing the supply of engineers – and that has not gone unnoticed by industry.”

In a report Securing the Future of Australia’s Engineering Workforce the Go8 call for three key actions from central government: a new funding model for engineering education; a programme of competitively funded engineering places supported by industry and a new engineering council that combines academia, industry and government.