There is a critical and often overlooked field, earth science, which is essential to Australia’s economic and environmental future.
From the minerals that power industries to the environmental solutions that shape the planet’s future, geoscientists are at the forefront of some of Australia’s most pressing challenges.
Yet, as demand for skilled professionals in the field continues to rise, Australia is facing a troubling trend — its earth science capabilities are shrinking.
Geoscientists and earth scientists are highly valued in Australia’s mining and resources sector, which accounts for 11% of the nation’s GDP. These professionals also play key roles in other industries, including environmental science, agriculture, construction, and satellite remote sensing.
As climate change and the shift to net-zero intensifies, the need for skilled professionals in this field is more urgent than ever.
Many mining-related positions, such as geologists, geophysicists, and earth science technicians are on the skilled occupation list for immigrants, highlighting the demand for these professions.
Despite this clear need, universities across Australia are making cuts to their geoscience programs. In recent years, two universities — the University of Newcastle and Macquarie University — have completely closed their earth science departments, as reported in the Australian Geoscience Council’s (AGC) Tertiary Education Profile.
University closures and budget cuts
“There are earth science and geoscience faculties across the nation closing,” Suzy Urbaniak, founder of the CoRE Learning Foundation, tells Mining.com.au.
As of 2021, less than half of Australia’s 42 universities offered undergraduate or postgraduate degrees in geoscience.
Industry experts have found that many of these decisions are driven by financial concerns, rather than the societal importance of these disciplines.
Dale Sims, President of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, tells Mining.com.au that universities will sometimes consult with different institutes or societies when it comes to cutting education in earth science.
“With the University of Newcastle closing the geology department, there was some consultation. But when we got involved, we found that the decision had already been made,” Sims says.
Sims says with Macquarie University, which is where he studied as an undergraduate, there was no consultation process.
“They just announced it was gone,” he explains.
Just recently, the University of Wollongong revealed it is cutting over 100 academic positions in response to a $35 million drop in revenue due to fewer international student enrolments.
Following a process to assess the viability of teaching areas, Wollongong University has identified 25 disciplines across four faculties that will be in scope for consultation.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Janelle Kerr, President of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG), says one of the reasons courses or departments get cut is because of attendance rates.
“The universities are making decisions about the financial viability of these courses, rather than the worth to society,” Kerr says.
According to Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, in 2020, there was a 29% reduction in funding in Australia for earth science courses, which equals about $10,000 per student annually.
As a result, course sizes decrease, which in turn triggers less enrolments and profits for the following year.
Nature Reviews says funding reductions inevitably lead to lower-quality student experiences, as academics find themselves without support, postgraduates are unsupervised, and undergraduates transfer to other institutions.
The struggle to attract students
Geoscience enrolments in Australia have steadily declined over the past decade, dropping by 43% between 2013 and 2020, according to the AGC Tertiary Education Profile.
This downturn can be attributed to several factors, including the negative image mining can have, the high cost of education coupled with inflation, and a general lack of awareness about the importance of geoscience or what it actually entails.
The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) notes that less students are drawn to fields like mining engineering due to concerns over environmental issues and human rights, which further exacerbates the gap in skilled professionals.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Andrew Dittmann — who authored the children’s book Mummy is a Miner — argues there has been a steady decline in people studying mining engineering in recent years.
“When I went through school, we had 150 people in the year behind us, we had about 70 to 80 people. But I think in 2018, there were 50 graduates nationwide,” Dittman says.
In light of the several challenges that have emerged in recent years, urgent action may be required to safeguard the future of earth science education, and to ensure Australia has a skilled workforce required to meet the demands of a changing world.
“There is a need for skilled labour, but how are we going to get that skilled labour if the actual faculties that are going to start the education of these skilled labourers are not available anymore,” Urbaniak says.
As a result of the numbers in geoscience enrolments, industry executives and organisations are raising the alarm over the decline in geoscience education.
The Geological Society of Australia, for instance, has garnered support from more than 200 delegates in a bid to preserve earth science programs. Meanwhile, groups like the ASEG are working to promote geophysics as a viable and vital career path.
Despite these efforts, the reality is that family opinions, career advice, the education system, or even university websites often fail to highlight the importance of geoscience, leaving many students unaware of the benefits and importance of this field.
Kerr says a new study conducted by the ASEG found students are influenced by teachers, university websites, and career advisers, among others.
“So if the university websites are not very good, it becomes a bit tricky for people to find the information they are looking for,” she tells Mining.com.au.
“There is a disconnect in knowledge about what the resources sector is doing and what role they have to play in a sustainable future environment.”
The path forward
In response to the growing crisis of a gap in the skilled workforce, organisations such as the Teacher Earth Science Education Program (TESEP) are stepping in to support both students and educators.
TESEP is an online resource for students designed to enhance and facilitate student learning with teaching support an essential part of the mix.
These initiatives aim to raise awareness of geoscience and geophysics, while also providing better resources for teachers to communicate the opportunities within the sector.
Kerr says their partnerships with groups like TESEP is focused on encouraging students to pursue geophysics and training educators to enhance their geoscience knowledge.
“That’s a really important driver to getting students to consider taking geophysics,” she says.
For someone who is interested in taking up a role in the resources sector, Kerr’s normal day at work entails modelling data.
“It could be anything from managing a specialist contractor who acquires data, I could be talking to landholders or Traditional Owners about the work I am doing to get their support, I might go out and check somewhere in regional Queensland what the survey is up to and if it is running property, and then I do computer modelling to understand what the data means for geology.”
The closure of geoscience departments across Australian universities is not just an academic issue; the sector considers it to be a national concern.
As the nation is navigating the complex challenges of resource management, climate change, and environmental preservation, Australia’s future depends on having a skilled, knowledgeable workforce in these fields.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Stock & Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists
