Mining Education Australia (MEA) is celebrating the inaugural graduation of their final year mining engineering students from the University of Queensland.  This is a milestone in mining education, with the groundbreaking national education joint venture providing its first graduates ready to enter into the mining industry educated through MEA.

In recent years there have been many changes to mining education, one of which is the collaboration of four of Australia’s top universities, University of Queensland, University of New South Wales, Curtin University and most recently University of Adelaide to form MEA, a leader in world class mining engineering undergraduate education, which was launched in 2007.  MEA is a critical response to ensure that industry has access to adequate numbers of high quality graduates.

An initiative of the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) through their tertiary education council the joint venture provides a common curriculum for third and fourth year mining engineering students and has already been acknowledged as an industry leader by receiving the Best Education & Training Collaboration award at a recent ceremony hosted by the Business/Higher Education Round Table.

MEA Executive Director, Professor Bruce Hebblewhite spoke about the first 45 students to graduate from Mining Education Australia’s program.  “These students are the first to graduate from this world first national undergraduate mining education, and are the first graduates from any undergraduate mining course to have had access to the comprehensive education of innovative delivery and learning methods that MEA delivers”.

“The students graduating from this program are the first to ever enter the workforce with a Mining Education Australia certificate which is industry endorsed.” “This is a true win for industry, education and students”.

A further 90 students from the inaugural MEA program, from both University of New South Wales and Curtin University will graduate in early 2009.

The graduations were held at the St Lucia Campus of the University of Queensland on the 10th December 2008.

Mining Education Australia (MEA) has been congratulated by a leading mining academic  for providing a well balanced mining engineering degree that gives students the attributes needed in future graduates.

Mining Education Australia has worked hard to develop an all-rounded program and according to Professor Malcolm Scoble, they have been very successful.

A diverse range of mining scenarios is covered throughout the program and “all core professional competencies for mining engineers are addressed” said Professor Malcolm Scoble.

The program content has been described as thorough and well organised with the program being centralized around six specialised themes.

Ongoing support from the staff and the balance between lectures, project based learning and self directed learning is very valuable and “considered to be unique in mining education”, said Professor Scoble.

After visiting the member universities, interviewing staff and students it has been said that the MEA program gives students the tools to develop their communication skills and strengthen their research competence.

The balanced program will give graduates the qualities to competently approach the workplace in the future according to Professor Scoble.

Thinking of a Cadetship? You can with MEA’s study options.
MEA is providing more flexibility in education opportunities for people wishing to enter the mining industry and now are able to accommodate cadetships in the mining industry, whilst completing a mining degree over 6 years. Cadetships benefit both students and industry by allowing students to combine study with paid work, gaining valuable on the job experience at a mining company.

Students wishing to take advantage of this new flexible mode of study are encouraged to approach the HR departments of mining companies to enquire into cadetship programs.

Congratulations to MEA Lecturer Dr Mehmet Kizil who has again received an award for teaching excellence from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. This makes it two years in a row for Mehmet who also achieved an award in 2007. This year’s award was for outstanding teaching, dedicated commitment and leadership in innovative curriculum development through successful national and industry collaboration in Mining Engineering.

The University of Adelaide is the latest tertiary institution to join the groundbreaking national education joint venture, Mining Education Australia (MEA).

Formed in July 2006 with three of Australia’s top universities, The University of New South Wales, Curtin University and The University of Queensland, MEA is a world first in undergraduate education.  The joint venture provides a common curriculum for third and fourth year mining engineering students, and is now extended across four states in Australia.

The significance of this new partnership is that MEA now covers  mining regions throughout mainland Australia, with campuses in Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and now South Australia.

New opportunities are being created for South Australian students which will  help reduce the shortage of professionals in the minerals industry.

“A new pool of students from a state which hasn’t had a mining engineering program for some time, will now be able to train as mining engineers,” Professor Bruce Hebblewhite, Head of School of MEA said.

“Students benefit from this world first national undergraduate mining education by gaining access to comprehensive industry endorsed education which  uses innovative delivery and learning methods.

“This is good news for the mining industry as they can expect the quality of graduates to rise as a result of the partnership.

MEA students have access to a much larger team of academics than any one university can offer.” Prof. Hebblewhite said.

“Developing the collaborative university program is  part of a nationally coordinated strategy for the minerals industry to overcome the global shortage of qualified professionals in the mining industry” Dr Kevin Tuckwell, the Executive Director of Minerals Tertiary Education Council (MTEC) said.

“The mining industry contributes enormously to the wealth of the nation, but to continue to do so we need more than 9,000 new professionals by 2020” Dr Tuckwell said.
In 2007, there were 113 mining engineering graduates across Australia, of whom 87% were from MEA Member Universities.  In 2008 there are now 176 students enrolled in their 2nd year of mining programs at current MEA universities who would be expected to enter their 3rd year of MEA in 2009.
“Now that The University of Adelaide has joined MEA, a further 60 students in 2nd year in 2008 are likely to enter a 3rd year MEA program at Adelaide in 2009, taking the MEA 3rd year 2009 total to approximately 230.” Prof. Hebblewhite said.

Student enrolment numbers have been growing at MEA universities, and the figure of 230 MEA 3rd year students in 2009 is rapidly approaching the industry target of  250 graduate mining engineers per year.

Media Contact
Ailsa Page
AP Marketing Works
Phone (03) 9314 2121
Fax (03) 9314 2120
Mobile: 0419 546 159
info@apmarketingworks.com.au

Available for Interview:
Professor Bruce Hebblewhite
Head of School & Research Director
School of Mining and Engineering
The University of New South Wales
Mobile: 0417 267 876

Media Release as pdf

In 2007, in response to concerns about the global impacts of mining from the world’s two most populous countries, David Laurence embarked on two ambitious research projects.

The first was examining the environmental impacts of coal mining in the Zhengzhou region of China.  The research, funded by the Asia Development Bank, aimed to determine the environmental costs and/or benefits of the restructuring program involving the amalgamation of small mines into larger production entities.  There are benefits from the restructuring but the significant environmental challenges need innovative solutions.  The challenges include greenhouse gas emissions from the high methane content of the underground coal; water quality and quantity from mine drainage; dust from coal stockpiles and transportation; subsidence from longwall operations and large, unrehabilitated waste dumps.

The second project looked at improving the sustainability of coal mining in India.  David co-organised (with the Indian School of Mines and ANU) the 1st International Conference on Managing the Social and Environmental Consequences of Coal Mining in India held in New Delhi in November.  With over 90 papers presented and 300 delegates, the Conference was an outstanding success and raised the awareness of the big issues including; greenhouse gas emissions; dust; mine rehabilitation and mine closure; mine fires; subsidence and displacement of villagers by expanding open cut mines.  As a result, a set of recommendations for both governments and industry was developed and the New Delhi Declaration produced.  The research in India will expand significantly in 2008 and beyond into other minerals including uranium.