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���������¼� and the Sir William Tyree Foundation have celebrated the announcement of a $2.6m gift that will boost the number of female engineering students from Western Sydney.

With Australia’s leading universities predicting a shortage of 70,000 engineers by 2025, there is an urgent need to address this critical skills gap.

Women and young people from low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds are heavily underrepresented in engineering. The Sir William Tyree Foundation’s generous support provides ���������¼� with the chance to redress this imbalance by helping to remove some of the barriers that get in the way of young women from Western Sydney pursuing engineering studies.

The Tyree Women in Engineering Scholarships will address the shortage by providing generous scholarships to attract and support young women from low-SES backgrounds or disadvantaged schools in the Greater Western Sydney region to study at ���������¼� and emerge as qualified professionals who go on to make meaningful contributions to society.

In addition, the Tyree Global Leadership Program will enable the highest-achieving female undergraduate engineering students to take part in dedicated leadership programs, mentoring, coaching and industry engagement opportunities designed to ensure they graduate from ���������¼� as highly employable and qualified professionals.

This significant gift aligns with ���������¼�’s goal to increase the proportion of students from low-SES backgrounds and disadvantaged schools to 25 percent of all first-year enrolments over the next five years.

���������¼� Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Attila Brungs said ensuring ���������¼�’s student community was representative of broader society would be crucial to meeting Australia’s future skills needs in engineering.  

“Thanks to our shared vision and partnership with the Sir William Tyree Foundation, we have the opportunity to have a transformative impact on the future of engineering in Australia and beyond,” Professor Brungs said.

“This gift will help remove some of the barriers that stand in the way of women from Western Sydney studying engineering, and support ���������¼�’s commitment to an equitable, diverse and inclusive University community.”

“Together we can uncover and nurture the talent in Greater Sydney that is reflective of Sir William’s legacy and support our future engineers – bright young students, who have the tenacity to solve some of our world’s greatest challenges and make a difference for generations to come.”

The Sir William Tyree Foundation is a long-time supporter of teaching and research at ���������¼�. The foundation’s generous history of support includes philanthropic investments to establish the Tyree Foundation Institute of Health Engineering and provide support for ���������¼�’s expanding nuclear engineering program.

“Our family roots are in Western Sydney. Our first Tyree factory was there. So, we are thrilled to partner with ���������¼� and give talented young women the opportunity to pursue a career in engineering and follow in my father’s footsteps,” said Robyn Fennell, Sir William Tyree’s daughter and Chair of the Tyree Foundation Board.

“Scholarships are a great way of attracting diverse groups into study at university, and so I’m delighted that we can collaborate with ���������¼� to extend this support to even greater numbers of students and help inspire, engage and empower the next generation of women engineers,” she said.

According to fourth year ���������¼� mechanical and biomedical engineering student Joanne Zreika, leadership, coaching, and industry engagement opportunities are vital to raising awareness of engineering as a potential career option for girls like her from Western Sydney who are interested in STEM careers.

“Throughout my studies at ���������¼�, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in experiential workshops and events and benefitted incredibly