Dear Colleagues,
The Queen wryly spoke of an Annus Horribilis when referring to her familial strife some years back. 2021 has been similarly challenging for our global community; a year full of stops and starts – a disconcerting mingling of hope and despair.
Some pundits have remarked that one should expect a crisis roughly every decade. With the dot com implosion in 2000, followed by the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, and the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, the predictions seem sadly accurate.
One can never be sure what challenges lie ahead. Still, despite it all, the past two years have been extraordinarily kind to the Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT).
Of course, there have been some business casualties: our conferences and on-site training halted overnight, and our international students have been prevented from traveling to our Australian campuses.
Due to these obstacles, many of our students had to start their on-campus studies through our online delivery mode. We spoke to Master of Engineering student, Adriana Conceicao, about her experience with EIT’s online study mode. Press play on the video to the right to hear more about her experience!
However, the silver lining of this was the dramatic increase in our online student numbers. EIT’s established online platform and the growing acceptance of this approach to learning resulted in a significant jump in our staffing and revenues (up 25% each year over the past few years).
We have continued to focus on high-quality, practical education to facilitate outstanding engineering careers for our students. We don’t feel burdened by the ideological need to do research. Instead, we focus unerringly on preparing students for industry through teaching and learning.
Our resources are underpinned by established and current research and presented by experienced engineering practitioners. My mantra that the student is sovereign and central to all we do has delivered some incredible wins from the Australian government.
In the latest QILT Survey, which includes all Australian universities, EIT was deemed the #1 Provider for the Quality of the Entire Educational Experience for Undergraduate Engineering Programs, and EIT was named #2 Provider for both Teaching Quality for Postgraduate Engineering Programs and for Student Support for Undergraduate Engineering Programs.
More recently, we were delighted to be named the winner of the Australian Export Award – at the national level – in the category of International Education and Training.
David Koch (or “Kochie” as many may fondly know him by) virtually presented the award to Edwina Ross and the EIT team at the celebrations held on the 25th of November 2021.
The award was brilliant recognition of the incredible dedication of all our staff. It also confirms that we are achieving something rather wonderful: using our supportive and interactive online platform of learning, to reach our students globally, with high-quality engineering qualifications which improve their careers, industries and the communities in which they live.
We are looking forward to 2022 and another year of excellence in engineering education and extending our online reach to students worldwide. And, after a long hiatus, we anticipate welcoming new international students to our Melbourne and Perth campuses.
Kind Regards,
Steve Mackay – PhD
Dean of Engineering
