News & Views item - April 2007

 

 

More Women Needed in Science, Mathematics and Engineering, Bishop tells First National Symposium on Women in Science and Engineering. (April 2, 2007)

  Some of the delegates at the symposium

  "In order for this country to remain globally competitive, in order for us to ensure our children have the skills to undertake the jobs that will be required in the 21st century, we've got to equip them with science, mathematics and technology skills," the Minister for Education, Science and Training told her audience of 50 leading Australian  female scientists, engineers and researchers, and 50 young female students from across the nation at the First National Symposium on Women in Science and Engineering this past Friday in Canberra.

 

And then added, "If we need more students in uni studying these subjects, we clearly need more students in high school choosing these subjects in order to gain entry into university, and how to ensure we've got more students studying these subjects in year 11 and 12, well they've got to be exposed to science and maths in a positive and engaging way earlier in their school years. We can't afford to lose 50% of our innovators, scientists, researchers, engineers and people with technical skills, so we must focus on ensuring girls and women have the opportunities to participate in these fields."

 

Contrast these words with the report two days earlier of the Executive Officer of the Australian Mathematical Science Institute, Jan Thomas, being unable to gain an audience with the minister to discuss the plight of mathematics as regards research and teaching in our universities. Instead she was shunted off to one of Ms Bishop's assistants, Jade Sharples.

 

The recent National Strategic Review of Mathematical Sciences Research in Australia, completed in December 2006, found that the shortage of mathematical modellers and statisticians is so severe that it inhibits work of business and industry, such as mining and biotechnology companies and financial institutions, and government agencies including the Australian Antarctic Division and CSIRO. The shortage brings pause to foreign companies' plans for investment in Australia.

 

Ms Thomas' succinct summation to The Australian, "If we don't fix the problems in the universities, we don't have the teachers, and that affects every parent in the country," seems to have had little impact on Ms Bishop's approach to policy for there was no mention when addressing the symposium of the problem or how she might approach remedying it.

 

Well, the May budget is in the offing and an election not long after. Whether or not that will have any influence on the Prime Minister and his Treasurer remains to be seen.