USQ head of department of information systems in the faculty of business, Dave Roberts, said the goal is to progressively include more ITSM concepts into IT courses.

Future USQ IT graduates will have completed the ITIL Foundation Certificate.

"In Australia we are seeing a clear shift in focus from programming and technical-based courses as the major emphasis to service management and the business issues of information systems," Roberts said.

"We gauge on the type of courses our students are looking to enroll in and there is a shift in demand from technical to business courses.

"The demand for these sorts of courses indicates they feel their employment prospects are advantaged if they are experienced in ITSM trends and standards."