New postgraduate study programs on Infrastructure Engineering and Management are designed to integrate crucial construction management skills and valuable industry experience with advanced engineering skills, at a time when they are needed most.
Large-scale construction and infrastructure projects can offer civil engineers a rewarding career path and the opportunity to solve complex challenges around urban growth. Built to last decades or centuries, these projects give engineers a chance to leave their sustainable mark on the built environment.
Many exciting and challenging projects across Australia are being built right now like the construction of the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower as Atlassian’s new headquarters, or Sydney’s new underground/underwater Metro lines as featured in the Sydney’s Super Tunnel documentary this month on SBS TV.
In the state of Victoria alone, there is more than $70 billion dollars worth of railway, roads and connectivity projects, estimated to employ more than 15,000 people over the next six years and create high demand for engineering and project management roles.
According to the Hays Jobs Report for the first half of 2020, the skills and roles in highest demand across the engineering sector in the future are civil engineers, civil project managers, structural engineers and sustainability professionals.
To help meet Australia’s growing need for future civil engineers, Deakin University has developed two postgraduate study programs that provide students with solid industry experience, technical skills and knowledge of railway engineering.
On track for a brighter future
The two-year Master of Infrastructure Engineering and Management (Professional) and the one-year Master of Infrastructure Engineering and Management study programs offered by the School of Engineering at Deakin University are open for its first intake of students for Trimester 1 in March 2021.
The programs are some of the only programs in Australia that let students combine civil engineering with construction management skills and includes railway engineering as a core subject at the postgraduate level.
For domestic civil engineering graduates, these new postgraduate degrees let them gain the benefits of technical skills from construction management streams in as little as a year helping them to greatly improve their career opportunities in working on large-scale infrastructure projects.
International students studying at a regional location like Deakin University’s Geelong campuses can benefit from an additional year of post-study work rights offered by the Australian government, giving them an opportunity to stay longer in Australia, gain professional accreditation, and valuable work experience as a civil engineer.
Different by and through design
Deakin University develops high-quality engineers through strong collaboration with industry partners, integrated research and a unique and effective teaching method called Project-oriented Design-based Learning (PODBL).
Associate Professor Mahmud Ashraf from its School of Engineering, says that while many universities employ a problem-solving approach to learning, the PODBL framework at Deakin University takes it so much further.
“Our approach is not just about problem-solving; they also have to come up with a design solution. It stretches them to dig deeper and learn more about other design approaches in order for them to show why their solution is the best one,” said Ashraf.
“From their very first class during their undergraduate studies, our students actively develop ideas and design products through hands-on learning techniques and spend more than half their time on team-based projects with real industry problems using some of our latest research to back up their thinking.
For example, one research partner is working with us on Cross Laminated Timber products and this is an exciting area of growth right now. These interactions help create work-integrated learning opportunities for our students taking on full or part-time industry placement as part of their studies.”
In a recent webinar hosted by Ashraf, infrastructure thought leaders from Downer Group and prefabAUS both highlighted the strong collaboration with Deakin University and opportunities for its students. Downer Group is involved in major transport and utility projects based in Melbourne and Geelong where Deakin University is based.
Potential industry partners seeking more information about infrastructure collaboration can contact Associate Professor Ashraf directly on mahmud.ashraf@deakin.edu.au
Prospective students can contact Deakin University at 1800 693 888 or myfuture@deakin.edu.au
