All that surrounds us, right from sugar to plastics has been extracted from natural sources. Sugar, for example, began its life as the sweet sap in the stems of sugar cane plants. The sugar cane is then crushed to extract the juice, which is in turn processed in factories resulting in production of sugar as we know it.

Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering which devises ways to convert raw materials into useful materials. It is a far-reaching discipline cutting across chemistry, biology, economics and other branches of engineering. Chemical engineering finds applications in all industries from food to mining to plastics because almost all industries need chemicals to either produce goods or deliver services.

Australian universities deliver well-organised, industry-relevant programmes that are valued by employers. In fact, most of the programmes are embedded with a work experience option, which involves either undertaking a work placement or completing a suitable project at an external organisation or company.

Most of Australia’s 37 universities offer programmes in chemical engineering.

Some of the universities where you could study are:

• Curtin University
• RMIT University
• Monash University
• University of South Australia