The Monumental Governmental Inaction. (September 18, 2006)

    The studied incompetence of the government to address the need for upping the capability of the nation's skilled workforce is a wonder to behold and it extends well beyond apprenticeship training.

The federal Coalition has been in power for 11 years. On July 19, the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop in addressing the Sydney Institute referred to Australia suffering a likely short-fall of as much as 35% in its estimated requirement of 55,000 additional scientific professionals (just over 19,000 individuals) within six years.

As an initial corrective blow she announced:

"Our bright young scientists should be encouraged to go overseas to gain international recognition and exposure, but we need to ensure that they have a reason to return to Australia. We need longer term research grants and research fellowships. On average the length of a research grant is 3 years. Given that researchers are expected to write their next application in year two when they should really be approaching the substance of the research, this is hardly an ideal situation. One idea is to make the ARC Discovery grants automatically 5 years of duration and I intend to examine this issue with the ARC.

"To this end, I announce this evening that CSIRO will increase its investment in its early to mid career researchers with an additional 40 new postdoctoral fellows and an additional 10 new CSIRO Science Leaders. The CSIRO Science Leader Scheme is directed to high performing scientists with between 5 and 10 years post-doctoral experience. This increased investment  will amount to $18.3 million over three years and provide important career  opportunities to Australian researchers."

To accentuate the ludicrousness of the government's lack of determination to significantly address the problem, even this funding is to come from redirecting previously allocated CSIRO money. 

Australian Academy of Science president, Kurt Lambeck

  Today the President of the Australian Academy of Science, Kurt Lambeck told Geoff Maslen of The Australian Financial Review that the number of science students graduating with doctorates and masters in research in Australia each year greatly exceeds the current demand for scientists undertaking pure research and maintained the imbalance needed to be corrected immediately, "The Australian Academy of Science believes a strong flow of highly motivated and talented young researchers is essential to the socio-economic and environmental wellbeing of the nation," Professor Lambeck said, and urged the Australian Research Council to give high priority to increasing the number of scholarships and fellowships available to PhD graduates and those undertaking postdoctoral research.

And he echoed Ms Bishop saying that many PhD graduates went overseas to undertake postdoctoral research for two or three years and would like to return home but there were few positions available. So they stayed away and were lost to Australia.

The AAS president isn't quoted as regards any additional funding the ARC should seek to undertake such an increase. But he went on to tell Geoff Maslen that the PhD was a training degree, but students were not being adequately prepared to work in the private sector. Many young scientists expected to stay on in universities, yet often the positions were not there or they offered only limited opportunities for advancement. "PhDs need to consider alternative careers to becoming academics and following on with the research of their supervisors. A PhD in my mind is a preparation for a career in any number of areas, not just in the research undertaken for the PhD. It has to be made clear to them that there are opportunities and other paths, but they need to be prepared for that with experience in grant writing, in interacting with industry, and to consider applied science not just blue-sky research."

Now somewhere in the gear train there seem to be a few teeth missing. Ms Bishop refers to a shortfall of over 19,000 scientific professionals by 2011 while the AAS president tells us there are newly trained Masters and PhDs in the sciences flailing around jobless.

If we take them both at their word they paint a picture of an Australian "socio-economic and environmental" system in disarray.

Perhaps if Ms Bishop can take some time off from telling the universities they should twist the nation's philanthropic arms as well as putting the bite on organised religion for more colleges, and sit down with thems what are supposed to fill that 19,000 deficit, she might actually accomplish something useful - it'd certainly be a change from what has gone before.