Engineering education in Australia has come a long way since the first struggling school opening in Melbourne in the mid-19th century. When Australia’s first engineering faculty opened at the University of Melbourne in 1861, it struggled with an image problem. Enrolment in its first year stood at 15 students. Within three years, it had dwindled to nine. The broad industry view was that engineers required on-the-job training, not academic teaching, and the university’s certificates were not recognised by engineering societies at the time. More than 150 years later, practical industry experie...