Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Higher Education Support Amendment (Student Contribution Amounts and Other Measures) Bill 2012 needs to be considered in the context of international education and economic trends. It is internationally recognised that a country's future and economic wellbeing, and its ability to compete in the global economy, are dependent on the skills that higher education brings. Economic frameworks have shifted from industrial and manufacturing sectors to science and technology, and to the provision of information and knowledge. Innovation using high-level maths and science is essential to solving the complex problems the world is facing: climate change, urban planning, health and medicine, transport, communications and information technology, and primary industries and production. This is reflected in the need for more highly skilled Australians, which is growing at 2.5 times the rate of jobs created for lower skilled employees. But we are falling behind in a catch 22. Education funding levels are slipping in real terms. Successive governments have failed to maintain and increase public investment in all levels of education, and thus have turned away from generational investment in this country's future in favour of the short-term political fix and big business demands.

The number of students studying maths and science in senior high school years has plummeted over the past decade. In 1992, 94 per cent of year 12 students studied science. By 2010, it had fallen to 51 per cent. That makes me personally very sad because we are clearly missing out on so much, as are so many students. The proportion of year 12 maths students studying advanced or intermediate maths has fallen from 41.3 per cent in 1995 to 29.7 per cent in 2010, with only 10 per cent studying advanced maths. The drop does not seem so dramatic but when you consider that we are now down to just below 30 per cent, it is a worrying trend like the trend in science. Conversely, the proportion of maths students studying elementary maths has risen from 37 to 50 per cent in the same period.

There is a shortage of skilled, high-level maths and science teachers in our schools which is seriously limiting schools' ability to engage and educate in these areas. The falling graduate numbers are reflected in the average age of maths and science teachers in senior high school, which sits at 48 and 45 years respectively. Our Chief Scientist, Professor Chubb, identifies the lack of knowledgeable and inspirational teachers as a major factor in the looming science, technology, education and mathematics skills shortages. In 2010, just 550 out of 72,808 diploma of education graduates held any previous undergraduate science study. That is a dismally low figure.

Professor Chubb has identified an important point here: the role of inspirational teachers. I was incredibly fortunate when I was at Sydney Girls High School in having such a teacher, Mrs Komon, who taught me so much and inspired me to go on with my own science work. And Professor Geoff Prince, Director of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, has described the consequence of that dismally low figure as 'choking graduations in mathematics and statistics, particularly the number of graduates who become teachers'. Turning away from the Gonski report would add further to the spiral trend. It is bad policy, given what we know our country needs over the next few generations of students and teachers.

We can all agree that the number of university graduates in science and maths needs boosting. Australia's ratio of first university degrees awarded in science, technology, education and mathematics courses is abysmal for such a rich country. In 2002 it was at 22.2 per cent, well below the 33.3 per cent in Asia, Europe's 26.6 per cent or Russia's 33.1 per cent. In 2010 our figure had fallen to 18.8 per cent of graduates in these areas. As I read out those figures I am reminded of what we have heard about the wonderful Olympics in recent days and comparing our medal tally with other medal tallies. I have enjoyed the events so much, but I wish these figures gained similar prominence.

Professor Chubb notes that Australia needs around 13,500 STEM graduates—that is science, technology, education and mathematics—per annum for a decade just to keep up with those retiring, yet the demand for maths PhD graduates will rise to 55 per cent by 2020. Students are also dropping out of these subjects as their studies commence. Out of 180,393 commencing enrolments in science and engineering degrees in 2007, only 112,162 graduated in 2010. That is a worrying high attrition rate. And let us not forget the looming retirement of the academic workforce in our universities, with Professor Prince noting that by 2020 there will be more mathematics PhDs retiring from the Australian workforce than entering it.

The need to boost maths and science graduates was recognised with the then government's move from 2009 to treat mathematics, statistics and science courses as national priorities, increasing government funding per subject and lowering the HECS cost for students from $7,260 to $4,077. This bill seeks to reverse that. Its amendments to the Higher Education Support Act 2003 do two things. They increase the maximum student contribution amount for mathematics, statistics and science units for all students from 1 January 2013—and we need to note that this will apply to new and continuing students. Secondly, they remove eligibility for Commonwealth supported places, CSPs, and income contingent loans for Australian citizens who are not resident in Australia during their course.

The government states that growth in bachelor-level natural and physical sciences has increased only marginally above the overall growth in the sector despite the HECS discounts and that the real investment needs to be in schools. This is acknowledged by a number of university sectors, but we are not anticipating a solution being found in a major increase in schools funding.

The education minister's office provides the following analysis. Discounted HECS in maths and science succeeded in raising the number of students taking natural and physical science courses by only 0.81 per cent, taking student numbers from 13.5 per cent in 2008 to 13.86 per cent in 2010. In 2009 and 2010 most students studying natural and physical science units were not enrolled in natural and physical science courses—obviously an important distinction. Students undertaking an education course of study and undertaking natural and physical science units in their course fell from 3.7 per cent in 2008 to 3.3 per cent in 2010. And, while growth in commencing students in the natural and physical sciences increased from 2008 to 2012, this was only marginally above the overall growth in the sector as a whole.

This analysis seems at odds with the 19.4 per cent rise in students commencing bachelor places across all sciences and mathematical science from 2008 to 2010, which is based on the available figures, compared with the 15.3 per cent rise across all other disciplines. Even the department noted that 'the two years growth more than reversed declines in demand for this field between 2004 and 2008'. The discrepancy may arise from counting first-year students undertaking compulsory maths and science units but not undertaking maths and science courses.

We accept that the numbers of graduating students in particular courses such as calculus, physics and chemistry are what counts. But Dr Dobson's report, commissioned by Professor Chubb's research, found that enrolments in science courses at all year levels did grow by 18,257 between 2002 and 2010 to 78,858 places. He also noted health course enrolments grew by 66,293 places to 162,611 in the same period, and management-commerce enrolments jumped by 96,719 enrolments to 325,508. But he did find an overall increase of university enrolments of 33 per cent, with enrolments in all levels of science rising by 30.1 per cent. He also found the expansion in 'science' did not come from the enabling sciences of chemistry, mathematics and physics, which remained static, but from behavioural and biological sciences and the non-sciences requiring first-year-unit study.

Dr Dobson still stated that the 2009 discount on HECS for maths and science students had been starting to generate more undergraduate domestic enrolments in the subjects and that abolishing this discount is a mistake. He said:

These things take time—it takes a generation—but you just can't do it in the political timeframe …

He said politicians will:

… never admit this, but basically they're just thinking of the next election and the next budget.

That is what I hope we can rise above in this important issue. This was echoed by Professor Geoff Prince, Director of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, criticising the axing of the HECS discount in December last year, saying that the money had gone into 'reducing the deficit'. For all their talk of a prosperous future for Australia, successive governments have been seriously failing generations of Australian students, and we are starting to realise the seriousness of the consequent shortages in skills vital to a healthy society that is competing in the new global economy.

The Greens acknowledge the government is spending $54 million to engage in maths and science through other programs, but we cannot support this measure that removes funding that encourages maths and science students until we see that a sufficient comparable program is put in place with commensurate funding being transferred to a more targeted area.