Changing petroleum engineering education to meet industry demands
Lisa Smith A and Brian Evans ACurtin University of Technology
The APPEA Journal 50(1) 309-318 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ09018
Published: 2010
Abstract
The Department of Petroleum Engineering at Curtin University had its inception in 1998. For the last 10 years, it lectured the Masters in petroleum engineering course to local Australian and international students, graduating more than 200 students. The rapid increase in the price of oil during 2006/7 saw a sudden and substantial growth in industry employment opportunities, which resulted in the department losing over half of its staff to industry. At the same time, the supply of local students reduced to less than 10% of those taking the course. This loss in both student numbers and staff at the same time threatened the department’s future, and resulted in the need for a new focus to return the department to stability.
A number of new initiatives were introduced, which included: bringing industry into the decision-making processes; introducing a new two-year Masters program to assist high quality migrant students obtain Australian permanent residency; increasing the advertising of petroleum engineering as a career option to schools and industry; linking with UNSW, UWA and Adelaide universities to establish a joint Masters program; introducing a new Bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering; changing the block form of teaching to a semester-based form; and having the Commonwealth recognise the new Masters program for Commonwealth funding of Australian students as a priority pathway to a career as a petroleum engineer while the Bachelors program gathered momentum.
This paper maps the positive changes made during 2008/9, which led to a 100% increase in student numbers, a 50% increase in staff to stabilise teaching, a 400% increase in active PhD students, and industry projects to deliver an increasing stream of high quality, industry-ready, graduate petroleum engineers over the next 10–20 years into the current ageing population where the average age of a petroleum engineer is 51.
Lisa Smith is student and external liaison officer for the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Curtin University and is responsible for student liaison and administration, finance, human resources and the general administration of the department. She provides administrative leadership and support to guide departmental staff in policy and procedures that effect the daily operations of the Department in the University. Lisa works closely with the Head of Department, maintaining strategic alliances with industry to provide a sustainable offer to students by developing scholarships and marketing the Department’s teaching and research capabilities. She has a broad range of experience in product marketing, project management, business planning and various administrative processes in the public and private sectors. lisa.smith@curtin.edu.au |
Brian Evans is Professor and Head of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Curtin University and Director of the Board of MERIWA. After graduating as an electrical engineering from Liverpool JM University, he worked as a design engineer with GEC Automation, and then turned to mud logging with Geoservice. Subsequently he worked as an instrument engineer with GSI, travelling around the world for a number of years until joining Southern Geophysical Consultants of London as a consultant geophysicist. In 1976 he established Perth’s only geophysical consultancy at that time, with four consultants working until 1983 when the oil price collapsed. He then obtained a Masters in geophysics at WAIT and a PhD at Curtin University. He established the Department of Exploration Geophysics and Australia’s first research consortium (CRGC) in 1992. He joined the Department of Petroleum Engineering in 2008 to assist its strong expansion. Brian is author of the SEG book Seismic Acquisition in Exploration. Member: ASEG, SPE and SEG. b.evans@curtin.edu.au |
