From adversity comes strength - repositioning education in agriculture

Much has been written about the decline in agriculture graduate numbers over recent times and the shortages created in the market place. At the same time, there has been an increased urgency towards professionalising the industry – a focus on education and training, a desire to improve the image of the sector, a move towards social licence and greater engagement with future opportunities, challenges and needs. This paper takes a fresh approach to these issues; drawing together the less commonly reported data on student enrolments in agriculture, the distortions created by misunderstanding course classification data and the emerging focus on learning and teaching academic standards in tertiary education. Decline in enrolments from 2001 has resulted in massive loss of income to university departments with commensurate contraction of academic staff numbers and expertise. The decline has now been addressed although it remains work in progress. The development of a national Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Statement (LTAS) for university Agriculture (AgLTAS) represents a significant positive step that engaged academic, student and industry stakeholders in its development. We expect that the AgLTAS statement will facilitate the implementation of academic standards by the agriculture discipline community, inform curriculum design, assist in identifying marketing opportunities for degrees and contribute to the further professionalization of agriculture.