Not long ago, a young graduate mining engineer had a guaranteed ticket to an exciting career. Jobs were challenging, plentiful and world-wide in scope. There weren’t very many new engineers (or technologists) graduating and demand far outstripped supply. The economic recession of the early 1980s changed all that. Middle management was especially hard hit and many mining engineers and technologists, who had enjoyed steadily progressive careers until then, suddenly found themselves out on the street. Enrolment at universities and technical schools declined as mining became a much less attractive career option.
With signs now pointing to an improvement in the mining economy, this may be a good time to look at the current state of mining education in Canada. The industry needs the best people possible, and it needs a continued injection of youth to question old ideas and provide the zest and creativity needed to excel today. However, several upsetting trends in mining education are noticeable when one looks across the country. One of the most striking is a sharp decline in enrolment. It has been difficult to recruit new students into mining engineering and technology programs.
At the British Columbia Institute of Technology, enrolment in mining is lower than it has ever been. In the mining technology program, 15-20 new students enrolled during good years. Last year, only four new students enrolled and this coming year the same number is expected.
The Haileybury School of Mines is facing serious financial difficulties and has been forced to lay off some faculty. Only two-thirds of Haileybury’s costs are currently being covered by tuition and a provincial government “per-pupil” grant. The remaining third is being provided by the provincial government on a year- to-year basis in order to keep the program alive. Student enrolment levels have generally declined at all schools. However, at Haileybury, publicity over the school’s difficulties has added to the enrolment problem. In 1983 there were 283 students in all years of the mining technology program. Last year there were approximately 100. The number of new students has declined to one class from approximately five classes of 15 students. Despite these difficulties, the school still offers one of the best practical technology programs and has a 100% job-placement rate for students. Haileybury has the tradition of excellence to see it through these tough times.
At the University of Alberta this year’s undergraduate mining engineering class was the largest ever, with 16 graduates (10 having gone through the co-op program). However, next year, only about five will graduate. Most mineral engineering students want to take petroleum or metallurgy rather than mining.
At the University of British Columbia, before the recession, it was common to have 28 graduates each year in the undergraduate mining and metallurgy program. This year 20 graduated and next year the number will be down to about nine. This figure includes those students majoring in mineral processing as well as mining engineering.
At McGill and Queen’s, numbers are relatively steady but small. For the past 100 years the number of McGill graduates has usually varied between eight and 15. This year 11 graduated. At Queen’s, Canada’s largest mining engineering program, there are 20-25 graduates now whereas, in the late 1970s, as many as 55 graduated each year (an unusually high number).
The decline is apparent in the U.S. as well. The 1981 high of more than 600 mining engineering graduates from the nation’s undergraduate programs is now down to around 200 in a total of 25 programs throughout the country. The Colorado School of Mines (csm) graduated 25 mining engineers last year, but only 10 freshmen started. A few years ago, there were more than 330 undergraduate and graduate students at csm. Now there are about 60. Even though the number of new mining engineering graduates is small and declining, the quality is still high. This past year, for example, the Prix d’Excellence for the top engineering student in Quebec went to a mining student at McGill.
Of concern to mining companies in the short term is the looming shortage of these graduating students. Where will the future mining leaders come from? If the industry begins to grow again, will its expansion be curtailed by a shortage of qualified people? Two recent U.S. studies by Consolidation Coal and the American Institute of Mining Engineers show that the number of American graduates of mining engineering will continue to decline to a level of 100 per year. At the same time, industry requirements will reach 200 a year. There is a well-demonstrated lag time of several years between industry’s demand for people and availability of graduates — two years for technical schools and five years or more for engineering graduates. As one educator has commented, most mining companies will only begin to realize there is a shortage of people when they arrive for interviews at the campuses and nobody shows up.
Graduate school enrolment, on the other hand, is up. McGill’s graduate program in mining engineering has increased enormously and now numbers about 30 students. At Queen’s the graduate program is of a similar size. There are several reasons for the growth of post-graduate research. The poor job market for mining engineers has encouraged individuals to take postgraduate work. As well, funding has become more easily available for research, especially in central Canada where most mining head offices are located. Several mining accidents in recent years have prompted government and industry to support increased research and development at universities, particularly in the field of rock mechanics. Despite the declining number of mining discipline graduates, or perhaps because of it, there are jobs available.
Since the start of this summer, the demand for mining engineers and technologists for both permanent and summer positions has picked up dramatically. Although new graduates are still not getting the four or five job offers they might have received in past years, every university and technical college with whom we spoke, in the U.S. and Canada, said all their graduates could find work if they wanted it. Some students have been forced to take jobs of a contract or temporary nature, especially in areas related to exploration activity. Others have not been able to get work in their specific areas of interest. However, the fact is that almost every new graduate can now get work, and that is a real change from the situation of the past few years. Perhaps this is a harbinger of a strong and unfulfilable demand for mining students to come.
Another trend is a willingness to try innovative new approaches to mining education. McGill, which has Canada’s oldest mining engineering program (and North America’s second oldest, after Columbia University) is embarking on a co-op program, combining practical work experience with formal education. Mining companies in Canada must be commended for sponsoring this and other co-op programs, such as one at the University of Alberta.
Another innovation comes from Montreal where McGill and Ecole Polytechnic will be joining forces to share facilities and professors. Students will take courses at both institutions and should emerge fully bilingual. In another development, Walter Curlook, chairman of the Mining Association of Canada, has been working to encourage better co-operation, in the area of research and development, between industry, government and universities. As a result of these and other efforts, several initiatives along this line have been taken. At Queen’s, the Ontario government has donated $1 million to establish a chair in mine design. This is part of a co-operative effort with the University of Toronto and Laurentian University to form a joint research centre for rock mechanics. Meanwhile, at McGill, the Webster Chair of Mining has been funded. The last one to hold this chair was Prof Telford, of geophysics fame, who retired several years ago. The new Webster Chair will be held by an ex
pert on robotics as it applies to mining.
Generally speaking, Ontario is the hotbed for mining engineering research now (except for the large graduate school at McGill). Several different public commissions over the past few years, sponsored by the Ontario government to investigate mining accidents, have pointed out the need for increased funds for ground control research. The recently completed Ross Report, which examined the mining educational situation in the province, was a catalyst for the recent support of mining research and development and improved training at Ontario universities.
Cambrian College in Sudbury has been designated by the provincial government as the Ontario Centre for Ground Control, and a teaching program is almost complete. The Ontario government has also provided a grant of $400,000 to set up a training facility at the college. The program will be a practical one, aimed at front- line supervisors, technical people, health and safety representatives, tradesmen, engineers and mining inspectors. State-of-the-art technology will enable the college to deliver programs to remote mine sites via satellite.
The Ontario government is committed to strengthening research and development opportunities in the Sudbury area in order to help diversify the economic base of the town and ease the high unemployment rate in the area. Sudbury’s Laurentian University has greatly expanded its mining engineering program recently with the hiring of extra faculty.
However, the growth in academic opportunities and research and development opportunities in Sudbury has been mirrored by a decline in funding and a drop in enrolment at Haileybury. Aware of this situation, the Ross commission recommended that Cambrian and Haileybury merge. Many people oppose this idea, saying the government and industry must work to increase the number of technical school graduates. (An old rule of thumb is that industry needs a proportion of four technical graduates for every engineering graduate).
Mining engineering programs have adapted to suit the changing requirements of industry. Mining companies have always been well represented on the advisory boards of Canada’s mining schools and they help to re-evaluate the mining curricula yearly. As a result, there have been changes. Information processing is popular and many universities are now stressing the use of computers in mine design. Software development for specific mining applications is also being advocated. Other areas of increased attention are: in-pit crushing, artificial intelligence, microprocessor control systems, computer- aided design (cad), mine valuation and productivity analysis.
And what about a more generally educated graduate? After several years of technical work, mining engineers often assume senior managerial positions at mining operations or in corporate offices. Some academics feel they are not well trained for this role and that there has been too much stress on theoretical science in the mining engineering curricula at universities. They say that being able to handle differential equations is not as important to a management career as being able to talk intelligently with geologists and accountants or having basic business management skills.
Generally, however, business education (involving mba-type courses) has not made major inroads in the mining engineering curriculum. However, this situation may be slowly changing. In a paper delivered at the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s 1987 annual meeting in April, Dr Jerry Whiting of the University of Alberta spoke about mining education requirements for the next century. In it he said: “The crux of our criticism of mining engineering education is that too much of it seems to be unrelated to what most mining engineers do when they get out of school.”
The U of A has established better communications and co-operation between the faculty of engineering and the faculty of business. This includes developing new courses (such as safety management and project management) and allowing undergraduate engineers to take business courses and even to pursue an mba beginning in their third year of the engineering program.
Many mining engineers who have worked for several years in the industry feel they can get ahead faster with a better understanding of management. The industry needs more mining engineers with work experience and a background in management. Most of the time, however, mining engineers who do go back to university for their mbas, move into another industry and do not return to mining. This past year a total of 385 students graduated from the University of Western Ontario’s mba and hba (undergraduate) programs. Of those, only three went into the mining or oil-and-gas industries. This number compares with 52 who went into manufacturing and 44 who went into banking. At ubc none of the mining engineers who graduated from the mba program this past year returned to the mining industry.
The make-up of students is changing as well. For example, there is an increasing number of women in the programs (on average, about 15% of new graduates).
Even though mining engineering enrolment at Canadian universities has dropped, there is one potentially great pool of talent that these universities have left largely untapped — college graduates. Almost all of those graduates who go on to complete an engineering degree do so at a university in the U.S. American universities have been very successful in recruiting Canadian technical college graduates. Over the past few years, approximately 30% of bcit’s graduates have gone to Montana to acquire engineering degrees, either immediately after graduation or after several years of working full time. Bcit, Cambrian College and Haileybury also have strong ties to the Colorado School of Mines and Michigan Tech. In fact, at Michigan Tech,, the majority of the undergraduates are alumni of Haileybury. These college graduates do well and are eagerly snapped up by American universities, who have regular recruiting drives in Canada.
The main reason for this tie between Canadian colleges and American universities is that the U.S. engineering curricula mesh more closely with the needs of Canadian technical college graduates. In Canadian universities, courses in the final two years require extensive prerequisites that render it virtually impossible for a technical school graduate to acquire his degree in two years. In the U.S., on the other hand, courses in all years are more often “stand-alone.” It is therefore easier to take desirable courses and to finish degree requirements more quickly.
Canada’s many mining schools are relatively small and spread out. Dr Williams, the former chairman of the department of mining and metallurgical engineering at McGill, believes there are only a few really strong, internationally respected mining engineering and mining technology programs in Canada. He suggests that a National Mining Engineering School be established, which would pool the country’s mining talent and resources. Others argue against that notion. They say different regions of the country have different needs (for example, open pit in B.C. versus underground in Ontario) and therefore require different schools.
There are several important lessons that emerge from all of this:
* Canada’s universities must make greater efforts to attract technical school graduates. Canadian universities are missing out on a pool of talented people, already committed to mining careers, who have demonstrated their abilities and usually have good work experience.
* The mining industry must become more involved in smoothing the cyclical nature of mining school enrolment levels. For the next few years, the industry is going to be short of good, young people; it is too late to alter that fact. However, companies can help in the future by offering mining students good summer jobs, by becoming involved in co-op hiring, sponsoring field trips and working with school advisory boards. Company representatives can also just stop by the schools periodically to find out what is happening. Dr Whiting
says that in the several years he has been at the U of A, only three company representatives have looked in to see what was going on.
* Finally, universities should place less emphasis on highly analytical courses (such as differential equations and nuclear physics) and put more emphasis on subjects that students will use most of their working lives, such as geology, metallurgy, communications and business skills.
All in all, it is a turbulent but exciting time for mining engineering education. The worst is over. The industry is recovering and there will be a much stronger demand for new graduates as well as for experienced people soon. Those who have stayed with the mining industry throughout the troublesome times of the past will be well rewarded for their patience in the future. William Stanley is director of national mine services at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting Services. Bob Holmes is a consultant with the company.
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