Attracting Top Students to Study Petroleum Engineering: Curtin University

摘要

Over the past 20 years, two of the main methods of training new students in petroleum engineering at Curtin University have been to provide a Bachelor of Engineering in chemical engineering with a minor/major in petroleum engineering, or to offer a Masters in Petroleum Engineering as a conversion course for graduates of an appropriate science or engineering discipline. When the industry picks up strongly and there becomes a shortage of skilled professional engineers, the industry employs anyone who has skill and experience. A knee-jerk reaction is to turn to academics, enticing them with attractive salaries, thereby depleting the stocks of quality petroleum engineering teachers. This results in a weakening of the education system which is expected to provide the future quality graduates. Curtin University Department of Petroleum Engineering is no exception. Our first step however was to base the department on high quality research, so that we were not dependent upon short term income from industry. The next step was to change the Masters teaching base to semester rather than block teaching. This allowed faculty to enter long term research contracts and to teach over the full semester period. Additionally we extended our Masters program to 2 years in duration to make it more attractive to international students who could subsequently apply for permanent residency in Australia following their studying. As a result applications to the Masters program has increased by 60%. Additionally, we have developed a new Master’s entry point via a one year Post Graduate Diploma course, which then allows international students to enter the Masters program with the desired pre- requisites- this has also removed Australian visa restrictions, making it financially prohibitive for students coming from some countries. The result has been a return to stability and optimism with faculty and staff who want to educate tomorrow’s engineers.