By Professor A.H. Corbett,
ME, BEd, FIE Aust.
Arthur Hardie Corbett’s appointment in 1968 as Professor of the
University of NSW whilst heading the affiliated Department of
Engineering in the Royal Military College, Duntroon, climaxed a
distinguished career as an engineering educator.
After graduation from Queensland and experience in industry
and the CMF, Corbett’s wartime experience included command
of a Brigade Workshop in the New Britain campaign. He then
returned to university lecturing, and in 1950 became head of the
Engineering Department at Duntroon. There he remodelled the
courses leading to the affiliation of the College with the
University.
He is the author of the definitive history of The Institution of
Engineers, Australia and of an early text on an emerging problem
‘Energy for Australia’. He has been an active and distinguished
member of the Institution, serving as its President in 1973.
BEFORE the first intake of cadets in 1911 two circumstances
could have influenced the early Duntroon
curriculum towards engineering. The first was the link
with Sydney University which had a department of
Military Studies under a Board appointed in 1907 which
included Colonel Bridges, other military officers and
Professor Barraclough, who had been commissioned in the
Australian Corps of Engineers. Subsequently the
University advised on the appointment of the first
professors at Duntroon. The second was the visit of
Bridges to West Point which, early in the 19th century,
was the first engineering school in the United States, and
continued to include basic engineering subjects in a general
military and academic education.
The orderly development of the RMC curriculum was
disrupted by the 1914—18 war and the economic policies
which followed. The need of the engineer corps for professional
officers was met in part by sending top graduates
from RMC to Sydney University to complete engineering
degrees in two years, although the academic work at
Duntroon equated to the first and second years did not
include all the engineering subjects taken in universities.
Academic education including engineering developed
rapidly after the 1939—45 war and it was realised by the
Army that the pre-war system would no longer meet
university requirements. The Vasey Committee in 1944
and the Rowell Committee in 1946 made recommendations
which had a profound influence on the subsequent
development of the College. These committees recommended
that the courses should continue to be of four
years duration, that the courses should lead to a civil degree
or part thereof, that working hours should be divided
equally between military and academic subjects, and that
the curriculum should be reviewed every two years by a
standing committee.
A section headed Engineering General first appeared in
the RMC Report for 1949, and recorded a conference
between Professors Matheson and Moorhouse of Melbourne
University and the College staff at which ‘a course
was devised to enable selected cadets to reach the standard
of Third Year Engineering’ before graduating from the
College. Further, the need was recognised for a Professor
and a Lecturer in Engineering, ‘but owing to administrative
difficulties the delay will be much greater than
anticipated’. Nevertheless the Army pressed on, and
instruction in some of the academic subjects was given by
Army officers advised by University staff.
Foundation Professor of Engineering
To fill the appointments recommended by the Matheson
Committee I took up duty on 17 July 1950, and Leo
Peterson as Lecturer on 21 May 1951. At the end of that
year the first RMC graduates, five in number, qualified for
admission to third year engineering at Melbourne University.
Mathematics and Science were offered in RMC departments
founded in the early days by academics with a
practical outlook, but otherwise Duntroon was ill prepared
for academic engineering. There was no relevant
library or laboratory, no tradition of publication or
research. Although the first professors had been appointed
by Sydney University some of their successors were diffident
about claiming professorial status and the small
academic staff had grown away from the university world.
My initial brief was to develop engineering subjects to
second year university level, but I had no intention of
stopping at that point. Two long-term plans were necessary:
to build on my contacts in the universities, the profession
and industry, and to find more time in the cadets’
crowded lives for academic work and study. In the early
days three university professors (Charles Moorhouse, Al
Willis and Mansergh Shaw) gave me unfailing support and
gradually their colleagues began to accept the concept of
close ties in the national interest between Duntroon and
the Universities and later the technical colleges. For this a
tribute is due to the quality of the graduates who went from
Duntroon into undergraduate courses.
Credits
The year 1951 was marked by the first meeting of the
Standing Committee on the Curriculum which in addition
to military members included representatives of three
Universities and the Commonwealth Office of Education.
An important recommendation was the inclusion in the
fourth year of 390 hours of academic engineering subjects,
which gave cadets specialising in engineering the choice of
one of three electives. This resulted in 1953 in the granting
of credits by universities other than Melbourne to RMC
graduates. Following staff visits to four States it was
reported that their universities ‘recognise the status of the
RMC curriculum, and heads of departments welcome the
inclusion of Duntroon graduates in their classes’. Again in
1956: ‘Contacts have been maintained and strengthened
with the various engineering schools of Australia and New
Zealand. Particular interest has been taken in discussions
on the shortage of professional engineers, and in the establishment
of Institutes of Technology in Sydney and
Melbourne’.
Diplomas
The high failure rate in third year courses brought home
the fact that few of the cadets who could work at degree
level at Duntroon would continue at that level as lieutenants
in the universities. Three-year diplomas were a
recognised professional qualification and Melbourne
Technical College would readily accept RMC graduates
into final year courses. The possible saving of a year compared
to a degree course also appealed to many of the men
concerned and also to senior officers. By 1954 the practice
of recommending graduates for either degree or diploma
courses had become firmly established.
In order to improve the preparation of cadets in engineering
courses for post-RMC studies a major reorganisation
of the military curriculum was introduced in 1959
and 580 hours in the final year became available for
academic engineering. These changes reduced the pressure
on cadets in all years and gave more time for reading and
private study. Staff were involved in the planning and
development of new subjects which would enable a cadet
who elected engineering to take one of four courses at
either degree or diploma level. However these courses
involving lengthy periods of academic work in the fourth
year were short-lived, and the last cadets graduated from
them in 1966.
Degrees at RMC
The 1964 Report stated that Army headquarters had
adopted the policy that whatever changes necessary should
be made to RMC academic courses in order that all
graduates of the College might have opportunities to gain
degrees for two reasons: in the senior ranks an officer must
be equipped to deal with diplomacy, government, industry
and the complexities of the military art, and the Army must
compete with other professions to attract candidates of
high quality. The Standing Committee met periodically
from 1961 to implement this policy and to study related
problems of staffing and accommodation. In 1963 an
Advisory Board on Academic Studies was appointed to
develop and supervise the academic courses, and External
Examiners were appointed to guarantee their standards.
All entrants in 1964 were required to qualify at matriculation
standard in their home States or New Zealand and
new first year courses were commenced at two levels.
There were certain disadvantages in the proposed timetables,
an important one for engineers being the compression
of more subject matter into the first three years.
The Standing Committee and the Advisory Board
brought into formal contact with the College two senior
Professors of the University of New South Wales, R.E.
Vowels and A.H. Willis. Some years earlier the latter had
suggested privately that the University might consider
some form of association with the College. To those in
sympathy with this possibility the events of 1964 brought
it much closer. The graduates from the short-lived 1964
courses received a diploma of Military Studies (‘with
Merit’ to those who qualified at the higher level) authorised
by the Military Board.
Affiliation
In 1965 the Minister for the Army approved of negotiations
between the Standing Committee and a university
with a view to affiliation, seen then as an interim step in the
progress of RMC towards autonomy, and likely to result
in an early decision. Affiliation was also welcomed at RMC
as a means of alleviating two recurrent problems — delays
in the appointment of academic staff and lack of accommodation
in suitable buildings.
The year 1967 was recorded as one of notable progress,
marking the opening of a new chapter in the history of the
College. The University of New South Wales agreed to set
up a Faculty of Military Studies responsible for courses in
Arts, Applied Science and Engineering, leading to the
award of the University’s degrees of Bachelor of Arts in
Military Studies and Bachelor of Science in Military
Studies. At that time no engineering degree was offered
because the course was not of four years duration, agreement
having been reached that the fourth year would be a
‘military’ year for all cadets.
Professional Recognition
University degrees in engineering completed partly at
RMC were given the same recognition by the Institution
as degrees completed wholly within the University, and
from the inception of diploma courses the necessary steps
were taken to have these formally inspected and approved
by the Institution. In the fifties three-year diplomas were
generally accepted as exempting qualifications, but the
Institution was moving by 1968 towards the requirement
that all courses should be of four years duration (the 1980
Rule). Cadets who entered in 1968—1969 and elected to
take engineering courses faced uncertain recognition until
1970 when the University and the Military Board approved
a four-year engineering course leading to the University’s
degree of Bachelor of Engineering. This could be awarded
with the usual University Honours whereas the BA (Mil)
and BSc(Mil) at that time were pass degrees only. Transition
arrangements were made for cadets already taking
engineering degree courses and the first BE degrees,
including several with Honours, were awarded at the
Graduation Parade in December 1971 on the eve of my
retirement as Professor of Engineering.
The 1970 scheme fitted in a fourth academic year by
curtailing the military studies normally required in the
final year, an uneasy compromise that had been earlier
tried and rejected. For cadets entering in 1975 and subsequent
years the fourth year became a normal military
year and in a fifth year they returned to the College as
lieutenants to complete a fourth academic year in engineering
or an Honours year in Arts or Applied Science.
Summary
In the fifties engineering was the cuckoo in the nest, but
the older academic chicks found that the nest could be
expanded. Staff shortages could be accepted or minimised
by the secondment of military officers whose contributions
are well worthy of record; inadequate accommodation
could be relieved in recycled huts pending the
funding, design and construction of new buildings. Time
was found for more academic work at the expense of
desirable but non-essential cadet activities. Perhaps the
most important factor was the recognition by our university
collegues of the worth of the Royal Military College as a
national institution.
In my experience it was a pleasure to work with the
majority of cadets who were disciplined, well-mannered
and highly intelligent. Outstanding students reached
major-general and professorial ranks and no doubt many
more will reach the highest professional levels. Their
achievements justify the acceptance of the frequent
changes in courses outlined in this paper, changes which
were the result of compromises between various pressures,
academic, military and professional.
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