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ENGINEERING BULLETIN

Publisher: All-Russian public organization "Academy of Engineering Sciences named after A.M. Prokhorov".

AUSTRALIA: Cheaper maths and science courses attractive

23.10.2010

A surge in the number of applications for undergraduate science and maths courses has been attributed in part to a federal government scheme.
The scheme is aimed to reduce student fee contributions in priority areas.

Applications grew by 12.6 per cent to 19,390 for courses starting this year, following a 17 per cent rise to 17,222 last year.

Demand was flat until last year, a spokesperson for Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said. The federal government allocated $562 million over four years in the 2008 budget to enable universities to lower fees for science and maths courses, amid concerns over the low demand for the courses, especially among high-performing students.

Rob Norris, Monash University science dean and president of the Australian Council of Deans of Science, said applicants nominating science as their first preference at Monash next year had jumped by 28 per cent.

Before the initiative, prospective students tossing up between courses faced a "psychological disincentive" to choosing science. "They had to pay about twice as much HECS for the science program as they did for the others," Professor Norris said.

"If it were clearly cheaper to do an arts degree, they may very well do that. There are lots of factors that help them make a decision, and this was a fairly subtle but definite financial one." He said the entry scores for science and maths courses had been plummeting across the country in recent years as faculties vied for students. "Some universities were going to absolutely abysmal levels to get their students in."

He said the cut-off rankings for science courses remained low but were showing signs of increasing.

Source: The Australian

In the photo: Monash University (http://www.monash.edu.au/)

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