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VC’ S CORNER
There’ s already been a strong push to encourage more students to embark on STEM careers. How has Swinburne addressed this in particular? We’ ve been focused on trying to address that challenge. One of the ways we’ ve been doing this is by offering bridging math courses.
We’ ve recognised there may be students who come with some educational disadvantage and we’ re giving them the bridging math courses so they can build their confidence, build their capability, and move into many of the careers [ that require ] stronger math preparation.
We’ ve offered additional tutorial support in the first year for students in some of the STEM areas, so they can be successful.
We offer scholarships for high-achieving students who study STEM courses such as ICT, engineering, science and aviation.
We also have been a leader in workintegrated learning. That helps place our students in industry and helps with their employability after graduation. And many of those are in STEM-related career paths. That’ s been happening here for about 50 years. And we’ re comfortable in that area of helping students get STEM-based, industry-based learning, which becomes motivating for students who want to find a career path, knowing they’ re going to be successful. If they choose a STEM career, there is a clearly mapped direction for them where they will be successful. So we try to be a bridge between university education and the next step they’ re going to take in their career.
What are your opinions and thoughts on how the university sector as a whole is addressing this issue? I think the universities are live to this issue, they’ re alert to the problem, and they’ re working in different ways to try to engage more purposefully with schools. They’ re looking at how they can reflect on the way we teach our students and prepare them as teachers and educators in these fields.
I think we’ re all trying to contribute to a solution. The universities are also much more engaged and alert to the challenges of career steps that students need to take, and job opportunities.
For example, we have something called the In2science program, which places PhD students in schools. It gives the PhD students some teaching experience and it helps the school by giving them some science teaching expertise from young people who are motivated, passionate and excited.
We’ ve also had a partnership with seven high schools in the eastern suburbs to create a physical facility called KIOSC, which brings students together from seven high schools to have exposure to the STEM subjects in a lab-based environment.
None of the schools could afford that facility by themselves, but by creating this co-operative physical teaching space on one of our campuses, the students can come there in years 7 – 12, be exposed and also start to think about where science might fit in their lives.
So if we open our doors and invite students and their parents in early, they start to imagine exciting careers that they otherwise might not have exposure to.
What do you think the wider repercussions will be if we do not see participation levels rise? If Australia does not increase its STEM participation, as has been outlined so clearly by our chief scientist, professor Ian Chubb, we will continue to fall further behind other countries. Jobs will be exported overseas, or skilled migration will be needed to bridge that skills gap.
For example, Australia graduates about 10,000 engineers a year. We estimate that we need between 12,000 and 20,000, depending on the economy. And that means we’ ll be looking to skilled migration to fill the gap.
We know that STEM graduates will have about a 70 per cent greater number of opportunities than non-STEM graduates. Our future economy is underpinned by the value-added skills that STEM graduates will provide. And if we do not encourage students to pursue these career paths, our economy will slow down and jobs will shift overseas where those skills are more plentiful. I think [ former CSIRO chair ] Catherine Livingstone stated this year at a press conference that we are already at risk of not keeping up with global computer literacy standards. And if we do not do that and commit to that, we will fall far behind.
I think it is about our economy, our capacity to be innovative and to have those knowledge-based, high-level careers of the future that will help us across all areas. That’ s not to say that humanities and social sciences and other industries aren’ t important, but if we do not have a strong STEM base, we won’ t have a solid foundation for the innovation that’ s required.
Are there any role models out there at the moment you could highlight as people we should be promoting to high school students? We need to make visible our female scientists and engineers. People like Megan Clark, who’ s an outstanding geologist, and the previous CEO of CSIRO. Cathy Foley of CSIRO is another amazing leader. We have our own professor, Sarah Madison, who is a leader in astronomy and encouraging women and girls in science.
We have a number of strong and capable people we do need to profile; they’ re doing their best, and I know they are reaching out actively.
When we have panels and talks and conferences, we need to have gender balance, and also make sure that we [ promote ] the stories around these remarkable women, who have often achieved so much against the tide [ in times when it may not have been as easy as it would be now ]. We want to make sure their stories are visible. ■
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