Climate, diversity guide Murdoch plans

IT has been about eight months since Andrew Deeks last spoke to Business News.

Then, he went to great lengths to stress that, under his leadership as vice-chancellor, Murdoch University would be a place where students learned to value social justice and the environment, and where opportunities would be available to more than just year 12 graduates.

Many of those commitments have carried through into the university’s overhauled 2030 strategy document, released late last month.

That document emphasises environmental and social themes, with goals of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, improving campus diversity and safety, and positioning Murdoch to become the university of first choice for First Nations peoples.

High-minded as they are, these priorities are a far cry from the jobs-ready rhetoric of federal policymakers.

Indeed, the Albanese government appears focused on emphasising skills and employability in university education, with the terms of its recently announced higher education accord (see previous page) giving prominence to skills development.

That seems to be a partial echo of the previous government’s preference for prioritising job-readiness.

Not that Professor Deeks sees any conflict between increasing graduates’ employability and broadening their awareness of problems like climate change and social inclusivity.

“Certainly, the engagement we had with industry as we were putting together this strategy indicated they were very much looking for employees who had these values, and that they as companies were looking into what they could be doing [in those spaces],” Professor Deeks told Business News.

“While we’re still teaching the engineering, law and social sciences, flowing through those will be those three themes.

“It means we would see Murdoch graduates as being even more employable.”

Some areas, including environmental stewardship, may prove a competitive advantage for Murdoch’s graduates in the coming decades.

While some sections of the business community have historically been hostile to climate action, former opponents, including the Business Council of Australia, are among the country’s most significant backers of a net zero emissions by 2050 target.

Professor Deeks sees an opening for climate-minded graduates.

“Many companies are going on these [net zero] journeys,” he said.

“To have graduates coming to them from a university which has been on that journey and shown the students how these things can be achieved is very beneficial for the employers and society more broadly.”

Similarly, Professor Deeks said making Murdoch a university of first choice for First Nations peoples was a natural priority.

He said the university had historically been successful in teaching to this cohort, with 224 Indigenous students having graduated from the school between 2017 and 2021.

“It’s something that’s seen to be what Murdoch’s already doing well, but through consultation externally and internally, it’s an area people have wanted to see us build on more to be a leader in terms of truth telling about how Aboriginal people were treated in these areas in the past,” Professor Deeks said.

“Really [it’s] to embrace that sense of culture we have through the lands on which the campus is based.

“It’s something that came through as a passion in our community.”

Developing facilities will also factor into the university’s growth, with the state government pledging to co-locate the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s new biosecurity centre on campus courtesy of a $320 million grant.

That facility will replace existing DPIRD labs in South Perth.

And while the university has axed its planned CBD campus under the Perth City Deal, investment continues to flow for Boola Katitjin (previously Building 360), which will open for students in coming months.

Murdoch has estimated 60 per cent of classes will be taught in the new building.

“It’s a demonstration of what we can achieve, but we will be looking at upgrading the existing infrastructure in the campus and ensuring there is accessibility in the campus,” Professor Deeks said.

Murdoch University is Western Australia’s fourth-largest tertiary education provider as ranked by staff, with 1,230 full-time equivalents, according to Data & Insights.

It earned $392.3 million of revenue in 2021.