Hansard debates

Ms SHEED — Dookie Agricultural College commenced its operations in 1886, and many thousands of people proudly call themselves graduates of that institution. However, as the popularity of agriculture as a course dwindled the course was largely being taught in Melbourne. In 2013 there were only 47 students in their final year of agriculture at the University of Melbourne, and only 6 of them were located at Dookie college. The millennium drought and a range of other negative perceptions led to a decline in enrolments in agricultural courses across the country.

The University of Melbourne has consulted widely with industry, employers and graduates. In 2016 it will launch a new agriculture degree course designed to equip students with general, technical and problem-solving skills to meet the high demand for graduates in agriculture. Next year the University of Melbourne will have 75 enrolments in its bachelor of agriculture course, a significant increase on recent years. Around 90 per cent of graduates gain full-time employment within four months of graduation. It is pleasing that the University of Melbourne will again utilise Dookie college for its degree course and that students will again become a part of the landscape of the college.