Australia’s best scientists are world-class, but the country’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) performance is generally lagging, a new report by the chief scientist, Ian Chubb, shows.
Mathematical literacy in students, in particular, is slipping relative to the rest of the world, raising fears of a “growing cohort of students who might struggle to participate fully in a range of life situations and jobs in a modern economy”, the report said.
Chubb said Australians liked to believe it punched above its weight in research performance, but a comparison with other “free-market economies with serious science engagement” suggested otherwise.
“We could and ought to be better,” he said. “The nub of it is that our best perform well but our average is not where it could be.”
The report pulled together published information on a range of measures of Stem performance including citation rates, research funding, international collaboration and maths and science literacy.
Australian results were compared with the United States, Canada, New Zealand, 11 countries in Europe and another 10 in the Asia-Pacific.
The report looked at the citation rate of published research produced in Australia to see how influential it is. The citation rate measures how often a scientific or technical paper is referred to by other researchers in their own papers. On this measure, Australia ranked below the US and European countries, but was above other countries in Asia.
The stand-out fields for Australia were earth sciences, physical sciences, mathematical sciences and the biomedical and clinical health sciences. All were above the average for European countries.
Australia had the second-lowest proportion of teachers with a maths-specific qualification. Australian students have declined in mathematical ability, the report says, but so have students from countries such as Sweden, which have a much higher proportion of teachers with maths-specific qualifications.
Chubb said science and maths teachers needed “a real discipline base” alongside their pedagogical training. “Even if they do a teaching degree it’s still got to have real science and maths in it,” he said.
Australia has gone backwards on patenting, with fewer patents filed in 2011 than in 2002. Countries such as China, Japan and Korea have leapt ahead. The report suggests Australia’s performance is in part due to its “poor” record of collaboration between business and research in the public sector.
Australia has the lowest level of collaboration between business and higher education or public research organisations out of 33 countries measured by the OECD.
Chubb said strategic thinking and prioritisation of resources was needed to raise scores, because “the reality is we aren’t going to get a lot more money”.
The chief scientist released a set of recommendations in September to boost Stem performance in Australia, including the placement of specialist maths and science teachers in every primary school.
At the time he called for the development of a “whole of government” science strategy. “We are the only OECD country without a science or technology strategy. Other countries have realised that such an approach is essential to remaining competitive in a world reliant on science and science-trained people,” Chubb said.