A Lucrative Export – Engineering D Ross, H Ku, P Penfold

Abstract

Education has becom e an Australian lucrative export. It is therefore necessary to write this pap er to tell readers m ore abou t this
export. A lot o f literature has been fo u n d to describe education in prim ary an d secondaiy education in Australia but only one
abou t engineering education up to first degree level is available an d it was pu blished in 1990, i.e. pre-D aw kin era in higher
education. This p ap er m entions the program s av ailable fo r year 10 school leavers to professional engineers holding master's
degrees; it starts with Techn ical an 4 Further Education (TAEE) colleges, follow ed by the newly fo rm ed Australian Technical
Colleges. Universities were lastly m entioned an d the description was divided into three sections o f first degree, master's degree
an d doctorate degree. It appears that Australian Technical Colleges w ould likely be absorbed into the TAFE system by the actions
taken by the present government. The future education an d training o f professional engineers are likely to end up with the 3+2
year bachelor-m aster m odel. Professional engineering doctorate will likely becom e widely available to future professional
engineers but Doctor o f Philosophy (PhD) program will still be there.