GCCA | Graduate Careers Council of Australia

Graduate Careers Australia

ergo - Number 93 December 2003

Students Respond to the Challenge

Four hundred students from RMIT University and The University of Melbourne competed in the annual University Challenge at the Melbourne Town Hall on Tuesday 16 September 2003.

The fifth year of the University Challenge contest again merged industry with education, with forty teams of students from a range of disciplines competing to provide the best solution to a hypothetical business exercise. The task was to manage a water company during a period of drought and to develop a twenty-year Sustainable Water Strategy. Developed by RMIT and Melbourne Careers Services, with input from across the university, this topic sought to test students on the challenges of water management in Victoria. Its relevance to current water restrictions and the ongoing issues of salinity and drought were evident, as students applied triple bottom line decision-making (i.e. social, economic and environment) in an attempt to provide workable and practical solutions to a complex problem.

Support for the event came from some important players in relevant industries, including Savewater!, Melbourne City Council, BHP Steel and Pratt Water. Sponsors provided business advisors on the day to assist the teams and to help judge the projects, along with academics from each university.

Working in teams of ten and relying on the information presented to them on the day, the students developed solutions to a number of typical business problems, taking into account the range of stakeholder needs and adverse climatic factors when making decisions. Students responded with lots of enthusiasm, hard work and creativity to complete the task. All the tasks were timed, and the responses were collected and assessed at the end of each round by a panel of judges. The judges were reportedly very impressed by the quality of the responses.
Maria Floudiotis, Manager, Career Development & Employment at RMIT University, said that University Challenge is “an excellent example of universities working closely with industry to provide students with the opportunity to further develop the skills employers look for.”

Participating students reported that the Challenge was structured in a manner which ensured that all team members had to be involved to get the tasks completed on time. Some participants commented that they enjoyed working under pressure, where the specific strengths of individuals came to the surface. Other students felt that the Challenge had made them more aware of the difficulty of balancing various stakeholder needs.

The University of Melbourne won first and second prize, with third prize awarded to RMIT. The event was a great success, increasing every student’s awareness of the challenges faced in the workplace, and exposing industry to the talent and creativity of emerging graduates.

The University Challenge is an initiative of the careers services of RMIT and The University of Melbourne.