IT has been five years since responsibility of Muresk Institute was transferred from Curtin University to the State government and students are responding to the change with their feet.
That was the message from Muresk Institute general manager Prue Jenkins and Department of Training and Workforce Development (DTWD) executive director service resource management Russell Brown to Farm Weekly last week.
Muresk was established in 1926 by the State government before being transferred to the WA Institute of Technology (Curtin University) in 1969.
At a time when enrolments had drastically declined in 2012, Curtin University relinquished its control of the agricultural hub, handing responsibility to the State-run DTWD.
Ms Jenkins has been at the helm of Muresk since late 2013 and has seen enrolment numbers rise from 44 students to 1200 in 2017.
Most of the enrolments are made up of students completing short courses, with approximately 75 students studying full-time programs.
Ms Jenkins said Muresk was now working with 40 different training providers and four universities to establish the institute as a “multi-tenanted, multi-functional training facility” for higher education, research, professional development and learning extension.
She said the institute had partnered with several key industry bodies including the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, the WA Dohne Breeders Association and Intergrain to deliver “cutting edge” research and development outcomes.
“We’re finding that industry want those short, sharp blocks of training, they want that flexible delivery and they’re not necessarily wanting to do that two or three-year program,” Ms Jenkins said.
Mr Brown said the framework for Muresk’s change in direction was outlined in Philip Gardiner’s 2010 report to State government.
He said Muresk was focusing on delivering vocational education on the 898 hectare property, to return it to its 1980’s heyday.
“If you look back far enough, virtually all of the product right up through into the WA Institute of Technology days were all at what we call vocational education levels,” Mr Brown said.
“It was as a higher education institution where it ultimately became unviable to continue, part of it was I think that Muresk was such a specialised facility doing only a degree program and nothing else.”
Mr Brown said due to drastic changes in the agricultural landscape and advances in technology, Muresk had altered its focus.
Ms Jenkins said agricultural technology would become increasingly important at Muresk, and the institute was committed to developing programs to cater for the agtech revolution.
She said Muresk’s relationship with the agriculture industry had improved drastically over the past five years, and industry would continue to drive the future direction of the facility.
“We’ve sort of regained our credibility with the industry I think,” Ms Jenkins said.
“We figure industry are responding with their feet, they’re here because we’re meeting their needs.”
