CEO presents at Higher Education Summit Thursday, 13 November 2014

As the Higher Education Reform Bill is being debated in the Senate, Engineers Australia continues to actively contribute to the ongoing public debate.

CEO Stephen Durkin was invited to represent the views of the engineering profession on a panel of esteemed education and workforce leaders at the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit in Melbourne on Wednesday 12 November. The Summit brought together leaders from Australia’s public and private higher education sector to discuss the Abbott government’s higher education reforms. 

The panel, addressing the implications for disciplines, professions and the labour market, included Professor Ian Chubb AC, Chief Scientist of Australia; Emeritus Professor Stephen Schwartz AM, Executive Director, Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS); Associate Professor Brian Owler, President, Australian Medical Association; and Mr Durkin.

Mr Durkin discussed the complex factors influencing the engineering labour market and Engineers Australia’s concerns that any barrier to students completing engineering degrees could lead to difficulty delivering Australia’s infrastructure needs years down the track.

For the first time, Engineers Australia live-tweeted the event so members could follow and contribute to the discussion as it happened.

The Storify summary of the event is below. Make sure you follow @EngAustralia on Twitter to join future live-tweet events.