Charles Darwin University (CDU) was recently ranked as the best Australian university for graduating engineers in The Good Universities Guide 2017, with 96 per cent of graduates employed full-time within four months of graduation.
CDU Provost and Vice President Sue Carthew said that CDU’s commitment to ensuring students are prepared with hands on experience for the workforce is key to this high rate of graduate employment.
“CDU embeds 12 weeks of genuine work experience in its engineering courses to ensure graduates are job ready, which also involves employers evaluating students before they graduate,” Professor Carthew said.
“Students are placed with engineering consultants, local engineering firms and multinational companies operating from Darwin, with some also electing to do the work experience overseas.”
Being able to secure full-time work is high on the agenda for potential students when they are choosing which university to pursue tertiary studies at.
Final-year engineering student and finalist in the NT International Student of the Year Awards Bijay Lamsal StudIEAust said that CDU’s comprehensive industry partnership programs give engineering students the chance to start building their networks and gain work experience early, with many students securing work before their degree is completed.
“There are excellent industry engagement programs at CDU, including with the Department of Infrastructure, Inpex, Power and Water Corporation, ConocoPhillips and several other companies, such that most students end up starting part-time work halfway through their degree,” Mr Lamsal said.
“Several students, including me, are already working part-time in the industry.”
Mr Lamsal said that the CDU’s globally recognised degrees, small class sizes and opportunities to work internationally in developing countries help give CDU engineering students an advantage.
“World class accredited degrees with the Washington Accord (through Engineers Australia) … accreditation expand the horizon for CDU students to work in most parts of the US, Europe and Asia too, hence giving us a competitive edge,” Mr Lamsal said.
“Small class sizes at CDU have enabled me to gain valuable one-on-one feedback in most of my subjects, which I feel is difficult to achieve in universities in other parts of Australia.
“A significant highlight was the opportunity, with Professor Ken Evans FIEAust, to provide humanitarian assistance to farmers in Sumba Island, Indonesia, through technical recommendations for improving irrigation infrastructure, arising from my final-year thesis.”
Overall, CDU was awarded five stars for graduate earnings and employability in The Good Universities Guide, which provides the only independent star performance ratings of Australian undergraduate courses.
Image: Works for the relocation of traffic lights at the Woolner intersection for the final stages of The Tiger Brennan Drive Duplication Project.