Instrumentation & Control A New Degree For Australia

Despite the fact that Western Australia (WA) has a predominately mineral extraction and mineral processing based economy, investigations by the education sub-committee of the WA branch of Institute of Instrumentation and Control Australia (IICA) indicated a lack of suitably qualified engineers in Instrumentation & Control (I&C). A subsequent detailed survey found that this lack of specialist I&C engineers was having a significant impact on the operations of major companies in the region. The IICA education sub-committee comprised of senior engineers from major processing companies but only a few selected representatives from the education sector. Accordingly the agenda was to design and develop, independent of any university, a new degree in I&C within 2 years to meet the needs of industry. As such the proposed degree was designed to provide not only conceptual knowledge of the discipline but also the appropriate procedural knowledge based on standard industrial systems and practices. Furthermore, this award must also be fully articulated to technical education at pre-degree level. The education sub-committee conducted an international survey of degree programs in I&C to determine international best practices and to find if possible a template that could be used. Despite extensive investigations no suitable degree program could be found – none offered the suitable emphasis being sought. This paper presents details of this investigation and the results of the curriculum design through to final adoption and implementation of this curriculum by a university within WA.