The ministerial brief - a tool for coastal zone management education

Abstract

Engineers not only deal with the general community and other professionals within their own disciplines, but they may also be required to engage with politicians who have extremely limited time to either read documents or participate in lengthy discussions. Therefore, politicians must be communicated with in a precise informative manner. This is often achieved through the use of short ministerial briefs (typically < 2 page document addressing key points) followed by a short discussion. Students in the Bachelor of Engineering in Coastal Engineering degree at Griffith University were introduced to the concept of, and taught how to design and present for assessment a ministerial brief. Following this, they had a meeting with the 'designated' Minister where their task performance and knowledge of coastal zone management was evaluated through direct questions. This educational process was found to be a valuable learning, teaching and examination process in an area the students had not experienced before. This project highlighted the necessity to adopt education techniques that expose students to scenarios which mimic those faced by practitioners.