Melbourne to host "life-changing" summit to ensure greater Indigenous representation at university

Some of Australia's top universities are coming together to ensure that Indigenous Australians have a greater representation in the field of engineering.

Led by academics at the University of Melbourne, the Partners for Pathways project aims to create scholarships, devise strategies and a promote pathways into engineering for Indigenous students.

Academics have found that there are many barriers for Indigenous students who are attempting to enter the field, and the team wants to improve the opportunities for potential students who hail from an Indigenous background.

The Commonwealth government has contributed 540,000 U.S dollars to the program, and the University of Melbourne has used the funds to call together a summit on Thursday, which aims to create pathways and support systems for Indigenous engineering students.

Indigenous engineers who have graduated will come from around the country to contribute to the event, which will be attended by most of the major Australian University engineering schools.

Professor Paul Dougas from the University of Melbourne said on Wednesday that Indigenous representation in the field of engineering was far behind what it should be.

"The Indigenous community has until now been underrepresented in the engineering profession, a situation that has had major negative consequences," he said.

He said setting up a mentor and support system was a key in bringing in a greater representation of Indigenous students to the field, and Indigenous graduates were going to play a major role in encouraging more university participation.

"Indigenous engineers are part of the conversation and providing input into the building of the pathways. They are engineers and have gone through the journey into engineering," Dougas said.

Professor Ian Anderson from the University of Melbourne said the two-day summit would play a vital role in shifting the attitude of not only universities and educational institutions, but the minds of prospective Indigenous students as well.

"The summit is a life-changing event involving industry, not for profits and education providers providing recommendations to help steer this pathway," he said. Endi