STUDENTS at all levels of education with a passion for STEM are benefitting from Agriculture Victoria’s (AV) broadening education program.

Agriculture Victoria research higher education manager, Ms Kendra Whiteman said a program for PhD students had been running in partnership with La Trobe University (LTU) and the University of Melbourne (UoM) since 2012.

“We currently have 65 PhD students under supervision as well as a large cohort of Masters’ students who started this summer,” she said.

“We are now partnering with more universities to provide industry-based PhD research and industry internship opportunities, including Federation University, Victoria University, University of Tasmania, Deakin University and RMIT.

“We have received excellent feedback from everyone involved in the process - students, supervisors, staff, tertiary institutions and our stakeholders.

“Supervising students is mutually beneficial.

“They bring fresh knowledge from their study to our research and in return gain much from working side by side with our expert agricultural research scientists in a multi-disciplinary and hi-tech environment.

“When they finish their study, they leave us with a very practical skillset for working in applied agricultural research, with exposure to modern scientific equipment and techniques, plus professional development opportunities like contract management and scientific communication skills.”