12 November 2023
Dear Editor
I was interviewed by a journalist the other week asking about possible future implications for our industry as a number of NZ universities start downsizing their geological departments. My eldest daughter is at Otago doing geology, fortunately she got in while they still have a robust course, but it will be downsizing in future, as I suspect will Waikato with the departure of so many of their good staff…including Vicki Moon. Their concern was that we were already reasonably short staffed in NZ in terms of dealing with natural disaster events and if we stop training them here as well, we’ll be left woefully short to address future events. At the time I downplayed the issue a bit, but it’s been on my mind since; especially having just interviewed some grads from Waikato and hearing about the downsizing actually happening in Otago – the other great breeding ground for our eng geos; so it’s actually already starting to happen.
The way uni courses are structured these days, students pick and choose courses as they go. There doesn’t appear to be so many defined obligatory courses. So, the graduates are coming out with a mish mash of experience. But I can’t even blame the universities. How many kids leave school wanting to be a geologist? A very small percentage of them have even heard of us, let alone have a clue as to what we do. I guess as an industry we’ve just been lucky historically that enough people have drifted into it accidently, but that may not be enough going forward. If we want our industry to survive and thrive going forward, I think we need to get more school aged kids knowing a bit more about our profession and wanting to be an engineering geologist (and geotechnical engineer). Any ideas of how to achieve this around the table? Engineering NZ have their school integration programs and competitions but there’s nothing (that I know of) for geology and geologists. Do we team up with the geological society and maybe AUSIMM..? I really don’t want to see us being unable to source NZ-trained geologists in the future and I suspect that’s where we’re heading.
So, there you go – have a nice new curve ball for a new committee!? 🙂
Cheers
Sally Hargraves
