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A grant of $2.6 million has been gifted to the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in a bid to encourage more female students from Western Sydney to enrol in engineering courses.
The Sir William Tyree Foundation launched two scholarship programs in partnership UNSW to meet the university’s target of increasing first-year enrolments from students who come from low socio-economic (low SES) backgrounds.
Under the $2.6 million grant, the Sir William Tyree Foundation and UNSW will offer Tyree Women in Engineering Scholarships to encourage female students from the Greater Western Sydney Region to study engineering courses.
The partnership will also launch the Tyree Global Leadership Program, targeting high-achieving female undergraduate students. Participating in the leadership program will allow the students to graduate from UNSW as highly employable and qualified professionals.
Professor Attila Brungs, UNSW’s Vice Chancellor and President, said the $2.6 million gift will break down obstacles that get in the way of young women becoming engineers in Australia.
“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 UNSW’s commitment to an equitable, diverse and inclusive University community.”
Australia’s leading universities predict a shortage of 70,000 engineers by 2025. The donation aims to fill this skill shortage gap while boosting diversity, equity and inclusion in the male-dominated industry.
“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,” Professor Brungs said.
The first Tyree factory established by Sir William Tyree, an Australian engineer and businessman, was in Western Sydney, where the Tyree family came from.
Robyn Fennell, Sir William Tyree’s daughter and Chair of the Tyree Foundation Board, said the partnership will allow the young women of Western Sydney to follow in her father’s footsteps.
“Scholarships are a great way of attracting diverse groups into study at university,” she said, “and so I’m delighted that we can collaborate with UNSW to extend this support to even greater numbers of students and help inspire, engage and empower the next generation of women engineers.”
The leadership program and scholarships, thanks to the gift from the Sir William Tyree Foundation, will help nurture students like Joanne Zreika, a fourth year UNSW mechanical and biomedical engineering student. 
As the ambassador for the Gateway program and a Women in Engineering ambassador, Zreika has had the opportunity to be involved in leadership workshops, events and programs and has seen how impactful they can be.
“Having witnessed the power these have had on my own growing passions towards the field, it has always been important for me to give back and provide guidance to the next generation of engineers,” she said.
“Being involved in outreach programs has allowed me to interact with highly motivated and talented students from across the state, including Western Sydney.
“This will undoubtedly open the door to a world of opportunities and be the first stepping stone in carving out an exciting career in engineering.”
Before he died in 2013, 92-year-old Sir William Tyree made clear how he saw the future of engineering in Australia, guiding the direction of the Foundation one decade on.
“I want to try and improve the education of the people coming on to replace us old blokes because unless that happens, Australia will simply not achieve what it should,” he said at the time.
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