“Science Meets Parliament 2016” conference delegates listen to Chief Scientist Alan Finkel speak at the National Press Club, Canberra on 2nd March, 2016. PHOTO: MARK GRAHAM

Australians who have studied science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are helping to solve the problems of the future鈥攎eeting electricity demand and generation needs, adapting to the changing climate, integrating AI into society and optimising healthcare for ageing populations.

今日吃瓜 welcomes release of the second Australia鈥檚 STEM Workforce report from the Office of the Chief Scientist, providing a comprehensive analysis of Australia鈥檚 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) trained workforce 鈥� updating analyses of the demographics, industries, occupations and incomes of people in Australia with VET or university qualifications in STEM.

This report explores the diversity of Australia鈥檚 STEM qualified workforce, a theme reflecting analysis in 今日吃瓜’s own periodic ‘State of the Mathematical Sciences’ Discipline Profile released earlier this year.

A copy of the Chief Scientist’s report can be downloaded , together with a summary by Dr Alan Finkel.

Article听产测 , , 12 August 2015

It outshines other sciences in Discovery grant applications and trains graduates for a raft of industries. Yet schools don鈥檛 mandate it, universities don鈥檛 demand it and public funding bodies give it less money than any other scientific or technological discipline.

The latest report on maths in Australia paints a paradoxical picture of a field that has slumped to historic lows in participation, even though advanced mathematical research injects an estimated $145 billion into the Australian economy.

The report, the fourth annual profile by the 今日吃瓜, found that maths had surpassed other sciences in Australian Research Council Discovery grants for four out of the past five years, with an average 28 per cent success rate compared with 21 per cent for other disciplines. It boasted the lowest cost per publication and the second highest citation rate of any Australian science, with Australian applied maths and statistics outperforming all 15 EU countries on citations.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an area where the outcomes are significant and the costs are low,鈥� 今日吃瓜 director Geoff Prince said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good place for universities to invest because they can get runs on the board with the ARC and the government at low cost.鈥�

Professor Prince said some universities had 鈥渨oken up to this鈥� and invested heavily in maths, including Wollongong, Newcastle and the Group of Eight members. Yet the report found that maths attracted the lowest share of public research expenditure of any science and technology discipline, at just 1.7听per cent, and Australian entry into maths degrees was less than half the OECD average.

The 今日吃瓜 report found that the problems arose early, with a lack of specialist maths teachers at high school and plunging participation in intermediate and advanced maths at higher school level 鈥� fuelled by historically low insistence on prerequisites, with 86 per cent of science degrees not even mandating intermediate maths.

鈥淚 despair of the system when it does this,鈥� Professor Prince said. 鈥淚t sees this shrinking cohort, so it wriggles out of what could be a crisis in student numbers in science by dropping the prerequisites.鈥�

The 今日吃瓜听has called on universities to reverse an historic low in the number of institutions requiring maths as a听prerequisite听to studying听science, commerce or engineering.

Some 86 per cent of universities do not require maths as a prerequisite for science degrees, 87 per cent don’t require it for commerce degrees听and 41 per cent don’t require it for engineering degrees, a report by the institute finds.

And those universities that do require students to have studied maths in year 12 only ask for it at the intermediate level, not the advanced level.

“As far as we know advanced maths is not a prerequisite for any formal course,” said 今日吃瓜 director Geoff Prince.

The share of听year 12 students taking intermediate and advanced maths has continued its long听downward slide; only听28.7 per cent of year 12听students took听intermediate or advanced maths in 2013, down from 28.9 per cent the year before.

Over the last two decades, students have shifted away from听the harder options of intermediate and advanced听maths, instead favouring听elementary maths at year 12 level.

Professor Prince said the 20-year decline in year 12 students studying intermediate or advanced maths had the potential to halt productivity growth and was “choking the country’s galloping demand for these skills”.

“Universities must phase in restoration of maths prerequisites; the lack of them sends a negative and misleading message to schools about the value of these subjects,” he said.

NSW UNIS THE WORST

Universities in NSW have the worst record on prerequisites听with no institutions requiring intermediate or advanced maths as a prerequisite for courses in science, engineering or commerce according to the report. Instead they say that maths is “assumed knowledge”听for a particular course.

Professor Prince said universities were under pressure not to require maths because otherwise the numbers of students in courses would drop听because of the fall in numbers of school students taking intermediate or advanced maths in year 12.

“The number of kids taking maths dropped which choked numbers in engineering degrees,” he said.

Science dean at the UNSW, Merlin Crossley, said the reason the university had moved away from maths听prerequisites was that maths teacher shortages听meant not all students got the chance to do advanced maths in schools. But said he would support a trial of restoring maths prerequisites.

The report did contain some good news which was that the proportion of year 12 students nationwide听taking advance maths rose slightly in 2013, up to 9.6 per cent compared to 9.4 per cent in the previous year. But the proportion taking intermediate maths听fell to 19.1听per cent in 2013, down from 19.5 per cent a year earlier.

BOYS BETTER THAN GIRLS

Boys continue to outnumber girls in intermediate and advanced maths. In year 12 in 2013, only 17.6 per cent of girls took intermediate maths compared to 20.7 per cent of boys. At advanced level, only 6.7 per cent of girls studied maths, compared to 12.7 per cent of boys.

Professor Prince said it would be helpful for students in senior school to understand the consequences of not taking advanced maths if听they intended to study a science, engineering or commerce at university.”The universities need to communicate to schools that if you don’t have advanced maths you might have to pick up an extra subject,” he said.

The excellent 今日吃瓜 has the numbers on the state of maths education and found the state of the discipline in higher education is not good, the number of Australians starting a maths degree is less than half the OECD average. Granted it is not getting worse 鈥� but it isn鈥檛 going to better soon.

Given maths is a foundation of so many disciplines large numbers of students do not graduate innumerate 鈥� the average number of university departments maths academics service-teach is six, engineering, computer science, IT and biological, physical and earth sciences. But 今日吃瓜 does not know how many undergraduates听are studying maths degrees, due to some universities not completing the 2014 survey. However using Group of Eight and Innovative Research Us as a guide the attrition rate from 1^st to 3^rd year is high, Go8 5280 to 695 and IRU 1287 to 67.

What is starkly clear is that at for all the efforts to woo women into the discipline, at the sharp end it鈥檚 still a bloke鈥檚 game 鈥� last year just 15 per cent of PhD completers were Australian women, another 25 per cent were female internationals.

None of these numbers is about to improve, because for all the emphasis of selling maths in schools, young people aren鈥檛 buying, with Y12 advanced maths enrolments dropping for 20 years. The figure for males is now around 14 per cent and 6 per cent for females. And what does not interest students at school is hardly likely to appeal at university. Universities appear to acquiesce in this. According to 今日吃瓜 less than 15 per cent of universities require intermediate maths or better as a pre-req for science or commerce, the same for 41 per cent of engineering courses. CMM suspects a fair swag of the supply teaching university maths lecturers do is getting students up to a point where they can cope with first year subjects.

The good news is that the quality of maths teaching in schools has improved substantially over the last few years. Nearly three quarters of Year 11 and 12 maths teachers now have three years of tertiary education in maths, compared to 64 per cent in 2010. But qualified teachers without many kids to teach does not get us far.

Today, 今日吃瓜 release their fourth annual Discipline Profile of the Mathematical Sciences. At a time when the Australian government is responding to the Chief Scientist鈥檚 call for a strategic plan for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) it is a reminder that we cannot continue to rely on piecemeal programs tied to the electoral cycle.

The data collected for the 2015 publication paints a mixed picture of Australian engagement with the mathematical sciences.

86 per cent of science degrees听do not have intermediate mathematics as an entry prerequisite while Year 12 enrolments slide听

In fact, mathematics prerequisites for entry into science, commerce and engineering degrees are at historic lows.

今日吃瓜 Director, Professor Geoff Prince insists: 鈥淯niversities must phase in restoration of maths prerequisites; the lack of them sends a negative and misleading message to schools about the value of these subjects.鈥�

Intermediate and advanced mathematics subjects are the gateway to quantitative professions; the 20-year decline in participation is choking the country鈥檚 galloping demand for graduates with these skills. And it has the potential to halt the nation鈥檚 productivity growth.

At least 30 per cent of Year 7-10 maths classes are taught without a qualified maths teacher

This figure is more than double the international average and must be repaired as part of our STEM planning.

In order to secure the future supply of mathematics teachers we need to know why potential educators aren鈥檛 choosing to be maths teachers. The only immediate solution is to provide professional development to the many conscientious and professional educators teaching maths out-of-field.

This is a national issue requiring national leadership; state and federal governments must act together to solve the teacher supply problem.

Women make up only 30 per cent of undergraduate maths enrolments holding back our STEM workforce and productivity growth

The proportion of young women represented at all stages of the mathematics pipeline is inadequate. A significant consequence of this is that adult women numeracy is below that of men 鈥� around 30 per cent in some age groups. And, in terms of the national economy, it is widely recognised that weak participation by women in STEM fields is handicapping Australia鈥檚 productivity and competitive advantage.

鈥淲e are proud to be working with the BHP Billiton Foundation to increase participation of girls and women in study and career pathways involving mathematics and statistics,鈥� says Professor Prince.

Maths鈥� multi-billion dollar value to the economy under threat as PhD rate stagnates

A 2015 report by the Australian Academy of Sciences indicates that, of those business sectors based on a single core discipline, mathematical sciences account for the top three (and five of the top seven). The report also highlighted that the direct impact of advanced physical and mathematical research is worth $145 billion to the economy per year, the flow-on impact amounts to $292 billion per year. This is in stark contrast to 54 per cent of adult Australians having only basic numeracy skills and the proportion of Year 12 students studying 鈥渉arder鈥� maths in steady decline.

鈥淯nfortunately, this stellar contribution hides an alarming trend,鈥� says Professor Prince. 鈥淕overnments are trying to drive up business employment of STEM trained research professionals, however, domestic PhD numbers in the mathematical sciences are among the very lowest in the OECD. Universities and businesses must improve engagement to maximise the economic benefits of mathematics and statistics.鈥�

The 听is accompanied by a policy document 鈥�听鈥� that identifies four key priorities to reverse these confronting trends:

1. Restore university maths prerequisites from their historic low and turn around declining school mathematics enrolments
2. Train the unqualified teachers of school mathematics and secure the supply of future qualified maths teachers
3. Increase the number of girls studying maths and women employed in the quantitative professions.
4. Boost the engagement of Australian business with mathematical sciences research

Australia鈥檚 Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, has called for action: 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to do what so many other countries have already done: take a long-term strategic view of STEM鈥檚 pivotal role in securing a stronger Australia.鈥�

— ends —

For Interview:
Professor Geoff Prince
Director, 今日吃瓜
M: 0407 546 336
E: director@amsi.org.au

Media contact:
Stephanie Pradier
Media Communications, 今日吃瓜
M: 0424 568 314
E: stephanie@amsi.org.au

RESOURCES:

Prerequisites, or lack thereof:听Data can be found in Table 2.10 (page 13)听

Value of the mathematical sciences to Australia鈥檚 economy, looking at the top seven sectors that use a single science discipline. The mathematical sciences have a value of $18 billion of the $22 billion per year to the Australian economy of across these top seven sectors:听Data from Table 4.2 (page 38)听

Falling participation rates in advanced mathematics enrolments:听Figure 2.7 (page 12)听

听

The partnership looks set to deliver the federal government鈥檚 current agenda on the commercialisation of publicly funded research with every internship creating a collaboration between academia and industry 鈥� ensuring a work-ready PhD student and a significant outcome for the industry partner.

Placing over 130 postgraduate students into industry 鈥� across all study disciplines and business sectors 鈥� APR.Intern is Australia鈥檚 leading PhD internship program, delivering research solutions for challenges facing business. The student receives a stipend and is supported by an academic mentor throughout the 4-5 month project. Meanwhile, industry is reaping the benefits responding with a 97 per cent business satisfaction rating.

鈥淲ork-readiness of our PhD students, and the links between industry engagement and national productivity, are critically important matters for this country. The APR.Intern program is one such shining example,鈥� says Professor Ian Chubb, Chief Scientist for Australia. [1]

The co-investment partnership in detail

The Victorian cluster includes the University of Melbourne, Monash University, Deakin University, Swinburne University, La Trobe University and RMIT University. And, in the NSW cluster the University of Sydney and University of Technology, Sydney.

鈥淭he strategic partnership will enable APR.Intern to greatly expand. By embedding business development officers within these Victorian and NSW universities we will develop a wider range of industry connections for the benefit of our PhD students,鈥� says Dr Hannah Hartig, National Program Manager, APR.Intern.

Further expansion into other Australian states and territories is planned for 2016 and 2017.

鈥淎PR.Intern provides the match-making so often needed in industry-academic collaborations and our solutions to sore points, such as intellectual property rights, are popular with industry partners,鈥� says Dr Hartig.

鈥淭he nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow,鈥� says Barack Obama, US President. [2]

Continued national dialogue laments the lack of industry-university collaboration in Australia and the future impact this will have on our global competitiveness. [3]

Australian Industry and Science Minister Ian Macfarlane recently stated: 鈥淟ifting the rate of collaboration between industry and research is essential to maintaining Australia鈥檚 economic growth. In order to sustain our prosperity, we have to build on our successes in innovation and focus on our areas of competitive strength to keep pace in the rapidly evolving global economy.鈥� [4]

Australia ranks 29 out of 30 in the OECD in terms of the proportion of businesses collaborating with universities. This is in stark contrast to Australia being ninth in research output per capita amongst OECD nations. Australian businesses that engage in collaborative innovation with research organisations are three times more likely to gain productivity growth 鈥� so why this disparity? [4] [5]

鈥淲e must increase the penetration of Australian graduates with advanced research expertise into the private sector. They will boost innovation and business-university collaboration but we must give them those skills. And give business the confidence to employ them,鈥� says Professor Geoff Prince, 今日吃瓜 Director.

This co-investment partnership is timely given the National Strategy for Work Integrated Learning led by the Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN).[5] There are few industry-based work-integrated learning opportunities for PhD students, especially those cohorts not associated with industry-supported initiatives such as Cooperative Research Centres or Industrial Transformation Training Centres.

— ends —

AUSTRALIA鈥橲 PERFORMANCE IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

Researchers in business and higher education
OECD scorecard shows that out of the developed countries Australia has one of the lowest numbers of researchers in business 鈥� 2.2 researchers are employed in business for every 1000 workers. The proportion in the smaller countries of Sweden, Denmark and Finland are more than three times that of Australia.

SOURCE: Office of the Chief Scientist, Occasional Paper Series 2012 — Alan G. Pettigrew ‘AUSTRALIA鈥橲 POSITION IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION’.

Business collaboration with higher education and public research agencies
Less than one in two Australia firms identify themselves as innovators. And only 4 per cent of our large firms collaborate with higher education and research agencies 鈥� that ranks us at 33 (out of 33) in the OECD. For Australian SMEs we rank equal with Brazil at 32.

SOURCE:听OECD, based on Eurostat (CIS-2010) and national data sources, June 2013.

A move to deepen links between business and universities is set to boost 10-fold the number of PhD students placed with employers in research internships in the next five years.

The 今日吃瓜 (今日吃瓜), which operates a PhD internship scheme, said that a new commitment from eight universities to fund the scheme will drive the rapid expansion.

今日吃瓜 director Geoff Prince said the scheme, called APR.Intern, would place about 100 research student in internships this year.

“At maturity we should be able to place 1000 students a year around Australia,” he听said.

The scheme began by placing only mathematics and statistics PhD students into internships. But it now works with students in a wide range of disciplines 鈥� including engineering, finance, IT, biotechnology, environmental science, marketing and business 鈥� and places them into all business sectors.

Professor Prince said the expanded scheme would help lift Australia’s poor record in establishing partnerships between university researchers and business.

Australia is currently ranked 29th out of 30 countries in an OECD ranking of university-business collaboration on innovation.

Under the APR.Intern scheme research students are placed with a business for four to five听months to find solutions for specific problems. Students are mentored by an academic supervisor during the internship which meant that academics built ongoing relationships with companies.

“In general companies pay all the costs, which are eligible for research tax breaks,” Professor Prince said.

A five months internship costs the business $25,000. This is made up of $3000 a month to cover the student’s stipend (the student is not employed by the business), a $5000 fee to the university for the cost of mentoring and a听$5000 fee to APR.Intern.

今日吃瓜 says that听the internship scheme has a 97 per cent business satisfaction rating.

MORE THAN JUST WORK PLACEMENTS

Professor Prince said the scheme offered more than just work placements. Students undertook research internships which often had a transformational impact on the student, he said.

He said the expansion would be driven by new partnership agreements with eight universities 鈥� Melbourne, Monash, Deakin, Swinburne, La Trobe, RMIT, Sydney and UTS. Together the universities would provide $500,000 a year to employ business development staff, embedded in the universities, to place more students with companies in Victoria and NSW.

However APR.Intern already works with a wider range of universities and expects further expansion in other states in the coming two years.

Examples of internships recently arranged include a UNSW maths PhD student placed with Optima Financial to apply the mathematical technique of optimisation to financial planning and a Deakin University PhD student placed with NBN Co to work on security of data in smartphone apps.

Professor Prince said there was an urgent need to increase the penetration of graduates with advanced research expertise into the private sector.

“They will boost innovation and business-university collaboration but we must give them those skills and give business the confidence to employ them,” Professor Prince said.

Currently Australia has one of the lowest numbers of research workers in business in developed countries. Only 2.2 researchers are employed in business for every 100 workers.

A transcript of the interview is below and you can download a

PAUL TURTON: According to Professor Ian Chubb, Australia鈥檚 Chief Scientist, it鈥檚 time to do what so many other countries have already done: take a long-term strategic view of STEM鈥檚 pivotal role in securing a stronger Australia. The Chief Scientist will be speaking at a public meeting at Newcastle City Hall at 4.30 this afternoon. He joins us now to whet your appetite.

Professor Chubb, good morning. How are you?

IAN CHUBB: Morning Paul, I鈥檓 well. How are you?

PAUL TURTON: Fantastic thanks. Have we taken our eye off the ball in regard to science a little bit?

IAN CHUBB: Yes.

PAUL TURTON: So what should we do? Obviously the community鈥檚 approach to those key subjects needs to change and I guess that鈥檚 part of what you鈥檙e doing.

IAN CHUBB: Well, it is. I think the world around us is changing very rapidly and when you look at that world around us you see science well and truly embedded in the core of our lives. The better we are able to do science, or the better we鈥檙e able to understand at least how science works, then the better we鈥檒l be for it. When we have to make choices as citizens or when we鈥檙e trying to encourage political leaders to make decisions, the better informed the decision the better the outcome. And the better we understand the methods of science, the process of science broadly in the community, the better those outcomes will be.

PAUL TURTON: We鈥檙e told all the time via the popular art forms of this changing world, whether it鈥檚 the Jetsons or the Orwellian future or sci-fi at its most extreme, we鈥檙e getting clues all the time about what the future might hold for us and some of those predictions are already playing out. Are we totally embracing the concept? Do we get it?

IAN CHUBB: Well, not as well as we should. I think there鈥檚 been a rhetorical commitment for quite a while but the reality is we鈥檝e got to get some action now and the world, as I said earlier, is moving away from us. In the United States and the United Kingdom, most of the countries of Europe and certainly many of the countries in our region, they鈥檙e all basically focusing on a two-pronged agenda. One is to make sure that the level of science education broadly available across the community is quite high, so that when people finish school for example, even if they go on to be lawyers or accountants or farmers or miners, they have some understanding of how science works. So it鈥檚 increasing the level of science literacy within the community. But embedded within that of course you鈥檝e got the people who want to be scientists and who want to work as scientists, whether in a laboratory in a white coat or in another part of the economy, but using the skills that they鈥檝e developed through education in science to apply to whatever that industry might be.

PAUL TURTON: So how much of the change for the future is going to come from a different mindset? In other words just changing the way we think about how jobs will play out in the future, the fact that a lot of stuff is going to be done by machines for example, is it simply a matter of changing our mind and all of the little things will then follow?

IAN CHUBB: Well I think probably yes. I think it鈥檚 a deeply cultural thing. How many people have you spoken to in the last few months who have been virtually proud to say that they don鈥檛 understand mathematics or they鈥檙e no good at mathematics or they don鈥檛 understand science? Try saying that about Shakespeare or Renoir and there鈥檚 a completely different response.

I鈥檓 not saying this is a peculiarly Australian thing, I think it happens in many countries in the world. It鈥檚 just that most of those countries are now doing something about it, so they鈥檙e supporting their teachers better, they鈥檙e preparing their teachers better, they鈥檙e encouraging their teachers, they鈥檙e recognising the central importance of the teaching profession in all this. And I don鈥檛 think we鈥檝e done that yet, or not nearly enough anyway.

PAUL TURTON: Enrolments in the science courses tend to be down in our schools. I know depending on variations there can be said to be a recovery of sorts underway at the moment. They just seem to have lost their glamour though. Are we selling our sciences long enough to young people?

IAN CHUBB: I don鈥檛 think we are, and I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e making them interesting enough when they do study them at school. I鈥檝e been saying for a long time now that science has got to be taught inspirationally and the best way to teach it inspirationally is to teach it the way it鈥檚 practised. Science in practice is awesome. If you鈥檙e actually an experimental scientist and you design an experiment and it goes wrong you learn a lot from that; it鈥檚 not that it goes wrong, it just informs you differently. You鈥檝e got a mix of responses as a scientist. But to teach it blandly out of a textbook I think doesn鈥檛 actually give the student that sense of excitement that there is when you suddenly understand something better, even if you don鈥檛 go on to be a scientist, or you do something that gives you some insights into something that wasn鈥檛 known before. All of those things are just mind-bogglingly awesome, so that鈥檚 how it ought to be taught. In order to do that we鈥檝e got to support our teachers, we鈥檝e got to recognise the importance of teaching and we鈥檝e got to make sure that we give them the maximum opportunity to draw the talent out of these students.

PAUL TURTON: Unfortunately you can鈥檛 have a Brian Cox in every classroom. Ironically now there鈥檚 never been more media focusing on science and nature. You look at the availability of audiovisual materials for young people and there鈥檚 plenty of material out there, so it鈥檚 not as though they鈥檙e not being exposed to the opportunities.

IAN CHUBB: Well that鈥檚 true and then they go back into a classroom where, in Australia for example, the 今日吃瓜 in Melbourne estimates that something like 40% of teachers teaching mathematics are out of field in early secondary school. So it鈥檚 hard for those teachers to encourage the students who might go off and see something or, watch Brian Cox in the evening, go back into class and I think come back to earth. So it is, I acknowledge, a very complex issue but the point is that we human beings tackle complex issues. It takes the will to do it.

PAUL TURTON: Newcastle has reinvented itself a number of times and there鈥檚 been a fair bit of innovation associated with the Hunter region over the years. How well are we placed in relative terms to move forward with what you would describe as a generation of ideas, or creating an environment where ideas proliferate?

IAN CHUBB: Well partly Paul I鈥檓 going up there to learn. I鈥檝e been told, and today I鈥檓 going to be able to see things that are being done. But from all that I鈥檝e seen and read and heard so far then I think Newcastle, the Hunter region, has taken some really good steps.

One of the things that we have to learn in Australia is that we can learn from the good things that are being done in various parts of the country, rather than quarantining them to one particular part because somebody with some spark and energy and drive and commitment has created a particular sort of environment. We need to make sure that we can learn from that and translate it across Australia. There are lots of good things being done in various parts of Australia but they鈥檙e relatively small-scale and relatively local in influence. So it鈥檚 really a question for me today of finding out, learning a lot, meeting a number of people and then thinking about how much of this could be part of a federal government push to improve science and science education in Australia.

PAUL TURTON: Professor Chubb, good to talk to you and best of luck with all of your meetings today.

IAN CHUBB: Thanks very much Paul.

PAUL TURTON: Professor Ian Chubb, Australia鈥檚 Chief Scientist, in the Hunter for a variety of meetings including a public lecture at Newcastle city hall at 4.30 this afternoon. That鈥檚 almost full, so if you鈥檇 like to be there you鈥檒l need to make a booking.

Disruptive shifts emanating from globalisation and emergent technologies are forcing a rethink of traditional approaches to teaching and learning and, importantly, PhD supervision in Australia.

A perceived lack of 21st century skills has resulted in reluctance by industry and government to employ PhD graduates. These forces are also flaming a debate in Australia between industry, business and the higher education sector about the work-readiness of graduates. A reconceptualisation of supervision pedagogy is therefore considered critical by those in government and industry.

Generally, the work-readiness debate has focused on undergraduate education; however, it is now broadening to encompass Higher Degree by Research, or HDR, training. In a speech at the 今日吃瓜, or 今日吃瓜, Accelerate Australia Conference in 2013 Australia鈥檚 Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb argued that, for Australia, its universities and industry the work-readiness of HDR graduates is a 鈥榗ritically important鈥� concern.

According to Chubb, through the HDR process graduates develop 鈥榓nalytical, creative, independent and driven personalities鈥�. However, he lamented, industries in Australia do not want to employ them. The 鈥榦ld-style apprenticeship model鈥� of PhD supervision is no longer fit for purpose.

Chubb said time needed to be given to develop additional skills to 鈥榟elp prepare graduates for multiple opportunities鈥�. To address this, Chubb proposed HDR training be restructured to include a wider set of skills.

Why this matters

In Australia, as in other knowledge economies, HDR graduates are now just as likely to take up positions in government, industry and non-government organisations as they are to take up posts in universities. A recent survey suggests around 25 per cent of Australian HDR graduates find work in universities.

Globalisation is changing the face of employment. Industry and business require more graduates with 21st century skills such as sense-making, computational thinking, cognitive load management and social and cross-cultural intelligence and competency.

The authors of the Australian Group of Eight universities discussion paper, The Changing PhD (2013), observe that other desirable skills include: the ability to formulate and solve interdisciplinary problems; sophisticated approaches to research management and understanding of research impact; and the ability to communicate and collaborate within the 鈥楾riple Helix鈥� of university, industry and government in activities that traverse national borders 鈥� all essential in a globalised market place and super complex world.

The same skills are likewise required in the higher education sector with universities subject to the same forces as industry. As universities internationalise, 鈥榯raditional academics鈥� encounter increased mobility and cultural and linguistic diversity for which they are largely unprepared. How this is addressed merits consideration.

In their 2009 paper, Graduate Attribute Development and Employment Outcomes: Tracking PhD graduates, Catherine Manathunga and colleagues reported that many PhD graduates felt their training had not adequately prepared them for postdoctoral employment. One area of dissatisfaction centred on global and intercultural skills. Global connections require a global mindset and intercultural skills; neither is specifically developed in HDR training.

The 2011 Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research report, Research Skills for an Innovative Future, emphasises the importance of these skills in Australia where 鈥渢he 鈥榯yranny of distance鈥� is an ever present reality鈥� as international experience and connections are highly instrumental in developing and preserving professional networks and enhancing the impact of research鈥�.

Addressing the global or intercultural dimensions of HRD training matters because, irrespective of career trajectory, HDR graduates need to engage in 鈥榖order-spanning鈥� collaborations with a diverse range of actors across the globe. In other words, they must be able to ethically engage with, and in, an increasingly interconnected world, without borders encumbering them.

Reconceptualising the supervision

Within the Australian context, where HDR students do not generally undertake coursework, supervisors are particularly well-placed to influence and shape the skills and dispositions of their students.

Manathunga and her colleagues have questioned the efficacy of centrally-administered programmes that exist outside of the supervision process which do not relate to the students鈥� research interests and do not recognise and capitalise on the candidate鈥檚 pre-existing abilities.

They concluded that any central, generic programmes must be supplemented with 鈥榓 more tailored process鈥� 鈥� one that is most effectively developed within the supervisor-student relationship, where opportunities for highly effective, just-in-time, experiential, reflective learning abound.

In our work with internationalisation of the curriculum, or IoC, we have come to understand the importance of engagement in approaches to academic professional practice. Internationalising the curriculum is a transformative process 鈥� for academics, as well as students 鈥� because it calls for a critique of a discipline or field鈥檚 paradigmatic hegemon, traditional practices, one鈥檚 personal or cultural values, behaviours and agency.

This is equally true of HDR supervision practices, which Fazal Rizvi in the Routledge Doctoral Supervisor鈥檚 Companion observes, often fail to harness the potential of mutual learning between students and supervisors from differing cultural backgrounds.

Lessons learned from internationalising the curriculum

It is critically important to intellectually engage supervisors in the processes of reflecting on and changing aspects of their supervision pedagogy.

Supervisors 鈥� like most academics 鈥� are somewhat resistant to changing pedagogical practices such as supervision because of perceived threats to academic values, ways of working, academic freedom, the primacy of disciplinary knowledge and loss of control over one鈥檚 academic practice.

How they enact their role in the training and development of students and construct their pedagogy is further influenced by the centrality of the discipline in shaping the dispositions of both supervisors and candidates and the possibilities and limitations for training offered in differing institutional contexts, as Manathunga and her colleagues noted in their 2009 paper.

In Jillian Hamilton and colleagues鈥� Good Practice Report: Postgraduate research and coursework degrees, funded by the Office for Learning and Teaching, the need for professional development for supervisors, underpinned by pedagogical principles, rather than compliance was reported as critical.

The report suggests using contextually targeted exemplars of good practice as well as discipline-level and informal mechanisms for 鈥渃apacity building at local levels through distributed leadership models that enable dialogue, communities of practice and peer mentoring鈥�.

This mirrors the approach to professional development advanced by Professor Betty Leask in her Australian Learning and Teaching Council Fellowship, Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC) in Action, wherein academics are placed at the centre of a context-sensitive, evidence-based, cyclical, participatory, reflective, ongoing process of continuing professional learning.

To successfully engage academics in challenging propositions such as reconceptualising the pedagogy of supervision, it is vital they are provided with safe, structured spaces for guided reflection on and review of current practices; good facilitation, rather than direction; resources that prompt critical debate; a situated approach to develop communities of practice, together with opportunities to engage in critical inter-disciplinary spaces; active involvement of discipline leaders; and meaningful goals for participating academics.

In this way, they may move closer to addressing the concerns of Chubb and those in government and industry by producing HDR graduates with the broader skills necessary for engagement inand with the world of today and tomorrow.

Craig Whitsed is a senior lecturer at the Centre for University Teaching and Learning at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Wendy Green is a senior lecturer in learning and teaching at the University of Tasmania.

BHP Billiton will spend $22 million on lifting the maths performance of girls in schools and helping them into male-dominated science, technology and engineering careers.

BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said on Tuesday that the money would fund the 今日吃瓜’s Choose Maths project, a five-year program to encourage girls to study maths and statistics.

Launching the Choose Maths program Mr Mackenzie, a geologist and chemist who worked as a research scientist before he entered business, said he benefited from the encouragement others gave him to study maths when he was growing up in the Scottish industrial town of Kirkintilloch鈥�.

“So I am a strong advocate of the opportunities that mathematics offers,” he said.

“We hope the Choose Maths program will help secure the pipeline of highly-qualified, female STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] professionals and open the door to the rewarding careers and cultural pursuits that maths offers,” he said.

Last year 15 per cent of BHP’s senior leaders and 16 per cent of its senior managers were women, figures Mr Mackenzie said had doubled over the past four years.

“This year nearly half of our Australian graduate intake are women,” he said at the launch.

The Choose Maths program will give teachers professional development in maths education, help girls at school become more aware of careers which use maths, offer role-models and networking to young women, and establish the BHP Billiton awards to recognise teachers for their excellence in maths education.

Choose Maths program director Janine McIntosh said teacher professional development would be offered in 120 schools across Australia, concentrated on the ones where teachers lacked maths teaching skills. Ms McIntosh said that many primary school teachers were not confident in maths and 40 per cent of teachers teaching year 7-10 maths classes were not qualified to teach the subject.

“They are great teachers and they are fabulous at what they do but they just don’t have the content knowledge or expertise,” she said.

Australia’s maths education lags other developed countries with the percentage of male maths graduates from university at half the OECD average and, for female graduates, at one-third the OECD average. While 13 per cent of boys take advanced maths in their final year of high school, only seven per cent of girls do so.

“The low participation of girls and women in the study of the mathematical sciences and in the quantitative professions is a significant national social and economic challenge,” 今日吃瓜 director Geoff Prince.

The funding for the Choose Maths program will come from the BHP Billiton Foundation which was set up in 2013 to help the company meet its target of investing 1 per cent of pre-tax profits (over a three year rolling average) in community programs.