Its the Numbers Game, Stupid. (March 8, 2006)

    Jan Thomas is Executive officer of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute and today she wrote the following to the editor of The Australian:

DOES a university deserve to be called a university if it doesn't take the teaching of mathematics seriously? In "New VC resolves hiring dispute" (HES, March 1) it was noted that members of the Australian mathematics community are angry about the situation at the University of New England. It would be more accurate to say we are angry about the situation across Australia of which UNE is of particular focus at the moment.

 

UNE has more than 10,000 effective full-time students. It has a range of courses that should have a serious mathematical and statistical content, including teacher education.

 

Indeed, the faculty of education has special funding to help address the teaching of mathematics in rural and remote areas. The idea that a university of this size can meet the need for mathematical sciences for its student body, and statistical consulting for the rest of the university, with a staff of four is ridiculous. Even if the 6.5 positions are maintained it is not a healthy situation.

 

This is not an isolated case and access to a solid three-year undergraduate course in mathematics is becoming more and more difficult for many students in Australia. It is not confined to rural and remote areas as, for example, the Australian National University is now the only provider of such courses in the ACT. I am excluding the Australian Defence Force Academy as it is a special case. The UNE situation is not an isolated case but it is a symptom of a much greater malaise with mathematical sciences in Australian universities.

And there's more. A "reliable source" who works the Canberra scene told TFW,  "Sure, but if you think the situation at UNE is dreadful, it's just as bad in other places. and it's still worse in
departments of physics and chemistry."

Oh, stop your whinging, there's plenty of coal and uranium to be dug up.