Unfair HECS burden for science students

SCIENCE graduates, many of them headed for teaching careers, are leaving university carrying a HECS debt equal to that of engineers and accountants - despite the vast difference in the salaries they can expect to earn.

SCIENCE graduates, many of them headed for teaching careers, are leaving university carrying a HECS debt equal to that of engineers and accountants - despite the vast difference in the salaries they can expect to earn.

The anomaly has been allowed to occur despite strong demand in schools across Australia for qualified science teachers.

Students undertaking an undergraduate degree in science and mathematics are charged HECS fees in the second-highest band, alongside economics, commerce, accounting, engineering, architecture and computing.

The fees are based on the cost incurred by a university to provide the course, and is estimated to be $7118 in 2007 for science students - only $1200 less than the highest HECS band charged to law, medicine, dentistry and veterinary science students.

While teaching students are classified as a national priority, along with nurses, and pay a much lower fee, almost $4000 next year, student science teachers attract a higher HECS fee because part of their course is undertaken in a science faculty.

The harsh reality of a heavy HECS debt did not hit Melissa Catherine until she had completed her degree.

The 24-year-old has just finished her first year as a science and junior maths teacher at Rosebud Secondary College, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.

"I remember all of my friends looking at each other after we finished, and we were like 'wow, we haven't even started our careers and already we owe all this money'," Ms Catherine said yesterday. "It was only then that we realised the magnitude of the debt. It certainly wasn't something we thought about as 18-year-olds when we were choosing our degrees."

After working for a year as a laboratory assistant at the conclusion of her three-year undergraduate science course, Ms Catherine undertook a one-year diploma of education, leaving her with a total HECS debt in excess of $15,000.

Ms Catherine, who earns a salary of $48,000, was left with a HECS debt in excess of $15,000 and contributes about $95 a fortnight to repaying the debt.

"It was quite a shock when I realised how much they were taking out of each pay," she said.

"I just try not to think about it, otherwise you start dreaming about the other things you could spend the money on."

Australia has a critical shortage of scientists and science teachers.

A survey last year by the Australian Council of Deans of Science revealed almost 10 per cent of science teachers had no background in science, with almost half of all physics teachers and one-quarter of chemistry teachers lacking a major in the discipline they were teaching.

Vaille Dawson, co-ordinator of science and maths education at Edith Cowan University, which runs the nation's second-largest education faculty, said the HECS burden was out of proportion to the salary a scientist or science teacher could expect to earn.

A draft study being conducted on behalf of the West Australian Science Council on the future of the discipline has found that one in four new teachers quit the profession within two years of starting their career.

The annual survey of graduate starting salaries released earlier this month by Graduate Careers Australia shows that dentists, optometrists, doctors and engineers have the four highest starting salaries. While teachers ranked sixth, their pay structure is capped at about $70,000-$80,000, which they reach in eight years.

Education Minister Julie Bishop said research showed that the level of HECS debt incurred did not discourage students from choosing courses.