| MEDIA RELEASE: HECS cuts. Where to now for maths and stats? |
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Media Release HECS cuts. Where to now for maths and stats?
The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute has criticised the government's decision to axe the HECS discount for mathematics and science subjects without investing the money in alternative measures to increase enrolments. “We were hoping that this money would be directed towards specific measures for increasing enrolments, but now the money has gone into reducing the deficit”, said Professor Geoff Prince, Director of AMSI. A strong mathematical skills base is essential to Australia’s productivity growth. Mathematics and statistics are fundamental to solving complex problems in climate change, transport, mining, medicine, urban planning and many other areas. In the United Kingdom, an extensive careers awareness campaign, ambitious year 12 mathematics enrolment targets and a range of other measures were extremely effective in increasing the number of students studying mathematics at university. “There is a very significant number of students at school for whom maths is their favourite subject, but they are not exposed to the career options that are there”, Professor Prince said. “An awareness campaign is absolutely fundamental to this. Imagine, in the commercial world, putting a product on the market and then not advertising it.” There will be more mathematics PhDs retiring from the Australian workforce than entering it by 2020. This is in spite of the predicted 55% increase in demand by 2020 for mathematics and statistics PhDs across all sectors of the economy. Enrolment numbers in intermediate and advanced level mathematics subjects at year 12 have been declining steadily over the past decade. This is choking graduations in mathematics and statistics, particularly the number of graduates who become teachers. This means that some schools, particularly in rural and low SES areas, are unable to offer advanced mathematics subjects to their students. AMSI and other organisations are advocating policies to reverse this trend. In February 2012, the UK’s Professor Celia Hoyles will visit Australia to speak at an AMSI national forum about the UK experience. Professor Prince said, “Mr Swan suggests looking at other measures to improve enrolments, and I welcome that, but the money is not there right now so new measures will require a fresh budget allocation”.
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