Producing the thinking soil scientist.

There is an increasing expectation that graduates in the discipline of soil science not only have a good grounding in existing knowledge, but the technical abilities and generic skills that enable them to use interdisciplinary approaches to solve real world problems. In doing so graduates have to be able to interact with members of the community at all levels and understand the social, economic and cultural elements that affect the adoption of the solutions they will provide. To develop graduates with such a holistic approach would require students, teachers and industry engaging with each other at appropriate times during the education process. To achieve this, and presented here for the first time, the evolution of a TeachingResearch-Industry-Learning (TRIL) educational framework is described and supported by educational theories. When illustrated using some of the current teaching and learning activities (e.g. practical classes or problem-based learning) used by soil science educators in Universities the theoretical framework may not be as foreign as it first appears. To evaluate the usefulness of TRIL five Australian Universities are working with agencies, accrediting bodies and industry to determine its use for producing a national soil science curriculum answering the need for work-ready graduates.