University of Melbourne Dookie campus

Members statement

Dookie Agricultural College commenced its operations in 1886, and many thousands of people proudly call themselves graduates of that institution.

However, as the popularity of agriculture as a course dwindled the course was largely being taught in Melbourne.

In 2013 there were only 47 students in their final year of agriculture at the University of Melbourne, and only 6 of them were located at Dookie college.

The millennium drought and a range of other negative perceptions led to a decline in enrolments in agricultural courses across the country.

The University of Melbourne has consulted widely with industry, employers and graduates. In 2016 it will launch a new agriculture degree course designed to equip students with general, technical and problem-solving skills to meet the high demand for graduates in agriculture. Next year the University of Melbourne will have 75 enrolments in its bachelor of agriculture course, a significant increase on recent years. Around 90 per cent of graduates gain full-time employment within four months of graduation. It is pleasing that the University of Melbourne will again utilise Dookie college for its degree course and that students will again become a part of the landscape of the college.

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