Twenty of WA's top engineering undergraduates going to Brazil to expand their knowledge

29/10/97

Twenty of Western Australia's top engineering undergraduates will be on their way next month to Brazil, via South Africa, to expand their knowledge of worlds-best engineering practice.

Resources Development Minister Colin Barnett today met the tour group from the University of Western Australia and presented a $4,000 cheque, on behalf of the Department of Resources Development, to assist with funding the visit under the Gledden Trust.

Mr Barnett said the visit to Brazil would particularly benefit students in light of strong similarities between WA and the South American country, not only in terms of resource profile and operating conditions, but in terms of the country's growing emphasis on downstream processing industries.

"Brazil has been selected because it is a country successfully making the transition from an economy reliant on commodity to export, to one attempting to ensure a large value-adding component," the Minister said.

"I strongly believe it is vital that potential future leaders of our engineering professions see how another country, and a potential competitor, is approaching this change in philosophy.

"Tours like this are to be commended, not only for providing insight into other cultures, but also for motivating top performers to excel in their chosen fields of study."

The 1997 Gledden Tour is part of a continuing annual UWA tradition to expose students to different engineering methods and practices outside WA. The students participating this year are all from the university's Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, and embrace civil, electronic, environmental, mechanical, and materials engineering disciplines.

Mr Barnett said the three-week tour aimed to broaden the horizons of the potential engineers through visits to a wide range of technological centres, as well as first-hand experience of different cultures. The tour - led by the University's Dr John Dell - will stop over in South Africa on the way to Brazil.

To date, similar tours have visited South East Asia, Japan, China, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

The tour was named in honour of Dr Robert Gledden, a mining surveyor who laid out the townsite of Kalgoorlie in 1894. Dr Gledden died in 1927 bestowing a generous sum to UWA for the promotion of education in applied science.

Media contact: Justine Whittome, Minister for Resources Development (08) 9222 9699