Melbourne School of Engineering

As the first engineering school in Australia the Melbourne School of Engineering occupies an unique place in the development of professional engineering education in Victoria and Australia.

A course leading to a certificate of engineering was available at the University of Melbourne from 1861. The first person to take out the certificate in 1866 was William C. Kernot, who took over the conduct of the course from 1869 and guided its development to degree status from 1882.

William Kernot was appointed the Foundation Professor of Engineering in 1882. The Faculty of Engineering was created in 1889 and links with the wider engineering community, already well established by this time, have been maintained to the present. Students could specialise in civil or mining engineering or take a diploma of architecture. These were the first such courses available in Australian universities.

Early in the twentieth century Mechanical Engineering was offered as a subject, and with the arrival of the second professor, Henry Payne, in 1910, engineering in the relatively new field of power and energy was also introduced and developed quickly. By the outbreak of the First World War engineering graduates from Melbourne University were well-established in the engineering community of Victoria and interstate.

The War Years (1914-18 & 1939-45)

Student numbers rose significantly after the First World War, though this was not met with a commensurate increase in resources. A major program of testing for government departments and private firms, and some applied research supported the teaching work until 1939 when the Faculty became a major contributor to the Second World War effort. The appointment of a Professor of Metallurgy in 1924 allowed the development of a significant research profile in that area and close links with the mining industry, which supported this work generously.

A moderately successful fund-raising campaign in the late 1930's resulted in some additions to the Engineering workshops and buildings, but the precinct remained a little run-down and subject to encroachment. Nevertheless, new workshops were occupied in 1940 and were inundated with war work. Further extensions to the workshops were opened in 1946.

The immediate post-Second World War period proved to be one of regeneration. The Chair of Engineering was portioned into three in 1946: Civil Engineering (J Louis Matheson): Mechanical Engineering (Robert R Blackwood): Electrical Engineering (Charles E Moorhouse). These changes coincided with another significant rise in student numbers with men returning from the Armed Services.

Teaching & Research

The Faculty began to build on the stronger research profile fostered by Professor Burstall from 1937, while meeting the challenge of modernising the undergraduate courses. In due course degrees in Surveying (Geomatics), Chemical Engineering and Agricultural Engineering were introduced.

With increasing specialisation came course restructuring to meet the challenges of the engineering profession, resulting in the establishment of specialist centres and programs.

From the late 1960's, there was a marked increase in post-graduate research students and a significant broadening of research activities of the academic staff.

Progress from late 20th Century to the beginning of the 21st Century

Rapidly changing technology has changed the way research and teaching are now conducted within the Faculty.

At the beginning of the 21 st century, the Faculty of Engineering is meeting that challenge. While some named courses have disappeared, the Faculty continues to offer undergraduate programs leading to a Bachelor of Engineering (4 years), Bachelor of Computer Science (3 years) and Bachelor of Geomatic Engineering (4 years). The four-year engineering degrees are accredited by Engineers Australia, and hence, via the Washington Accord, gain international professional recognition.

These courses are offered within the six academic departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science and Software Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Geomatics (formerly Surveying) and Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. Within these departments students pursue a wide-range of traditional, new and emerging studies. Many of these cross old disciplinary and even Faculty boundaries and point the way to multi-discipline, multi-department Centres that develop research collaboration and teaching.

The history of the Melbourne School of Engineering at the University of Melbourne is one of constant change and innovation, of meeting new challenges in the development of the engineering profession in Victoria and Australia. But above all it strives to be a centre of excellence in producing engineers that match today's technological needs, and remains an essential driver for the future prosperity of our society.