Mathematical
Sciences in Australia: Problems and Solutions
Numbers are down: both of students
and staff in universities, and Australian universities are not
able to meet the mathematics and statistics needs of business,
industry, government and schools. Mathematicians and statisticians
should be, but are not, teaching all the university subjects in
their disciplines, and there are many university courses which
need mathematical sciences components retained or increased. Eroding
service teaching income, falling numbers of mathematics and statistics
majors, flawed funding formulae and problems with school education
deeply threaten the survival of our discipline at many Australian
universities. Across the nation we face the local extinction of
specific areas of expertise and a general narrowing of our research
capacity that bodes ill for the future of the profession and the
country as a whole.
Solutions require better resources,
better networking, and cultural change at many levels. Modest
proposals to solve the sector's problems are proposed. Will all
stakeholders accept their responsibility to contribute to solutions?
