Unis ‘need to attract more diverse range of students’

Despite the millions of dollars spent to encourage school students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), young women seem to have been left behind.

School students enjoying the University of Newcastle’s Science and Engineering Challenge.

Many tens of millions of government dollars have been spent in recent years to encourage school students to pursue study and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) – yet girls and young women seem to have been left behind.

Most STEM subjects in schools and universities continue to be dominated by males, particularly subjects in the fields of engineering and technology.

Tom Raimondo, dean of programs (information technology and mathematics) at the University of South Australia, says Australia’s universities need to attract a more diverse range of students to STEM subjects, including more women.

He says the extensive AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) defence agreement signed last year will fuel a surge in demand for STEM graduates in years to come, but according to current enrolment trends Australia will not be able to supply the numbers needed.

“Particularly in the research and innovation part of STEM, the numbers of women participating in that kind of workforce are well below 50 per cent,” Raimondo says. “It’s a very small proportion. There’s a significant challenge in terms of the attractiveness of the career pathway for women, in terms of the retention of women who are already there, and in terms of the diversity of that workforce overall.”

At the same time, a range of state and federal government departments fund a wide array of programs to support school students and university students’ engagement in STEM, diversity in STEM, and STEM pathways.

The University of Newcastle, for instance, has for 25 years run a Science and Engineering Challenge to engage students in STEM outreach programs nationwide.

The challenge began as an exercise to increase student enrolments in STEM-focused degrees, and by 2005 the university was running events in every state and territory.

More than 480,000 students have taken part in the program – about half of them girls, the university says.

In February the university was awarded $1.6m to combine STEM Challenge Days with a hub for teachers and parents to offer students across Australia the opportunity to engage with industry professionals.

Quality STEM education is “critical for Australia’s current and future productivity”, says a spokesman for the federal Department of Education.

“To ensure Australians are fully equipped with the skills, knowledge and capabilities to take advantage of the jobs of the future, the Australian government continues to work with state and territory government and non-govern-ment education authorities and school communities to strengthen STEM education in the early years and schools, as well as fostering pathways and transitions to tertiary STEM learning.”

Yet some experts have questioned the overall effectiveness of these STEM engagement programs for girls and women, who remain under-represented in the field.

“Despite millions in funding and huge national programs, the proportion of women in STEM occupations almost won’t budge,” the chief executive of the Science in Australia Gender Equity organisation, Janin Bredehoeft, wrote in a blog published on the Diversity Council of Australia website in February.

School students enjoying the University of Newcastle’s Science and Engineering Challenge.

“We’ve seen tiny incremental changes, but the number has been stagnating. Only 15 per cent of Australia’s 2023 STEM workforce were women (a two percentage point increase from 2019) and they earn on average 16 per cent less than men.”

The education department spokesman says all the current education portfolio STEM programs focused on early years and schools have been funded by the government since at least 2016, and some have been funded and been in operation for much longer.

“All have been independently evaluated and demonstrated to be effective in boosting the capability of teachers/educators to deliver quality STEM education and/or student engagement in STEM,” the spokesman says, referring to a 2020 evaluation of National Innovation and Science Agenda schooling initiatives.

For girls, particularly, the federal government funds the Curious Minds program for high-potential female students in years 8, 9 and 10. Consisting of a series of summer schools, with a mentoring program and follow-up winter schools, the Curious Minds program is intended to “ignite girls’ passion and participation in STEM”, an education department spokesman says. Since 2015, 872 girls have been through the program. Girls in selected programs have certainly progressed in science and mathematics, experts say, but on a broader scale Australian girls appear to be doing poorly in maths and just holding their own in science.

The international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development runs a Program for International Assessment which tests 15-year-olds from nations around the world every three years on their maths, science and reading skills. Since 2003, when mathematical literacy was first assessed as a major domain, Australia’s average score has declined by 37 points – for girls the dip was 41 points and for boys 34 points.

Australia is one of 32 nations where boys outperformed girls in maths, in 2022 by 12 points. Between 2006 and 2022, mean scientific literacy fell by 21 points for girls and 19 points for boys.

It should be remembered, says Helen Proctor, professor of education history and policy at the University of Sydney, that the world remains a very gendered place and the students of today are influenced by their friends, relatives, media and social media.

While curriculum documents have been purged of sexist content, she adds, and care is taken to avoid gendered language in the classroom, girls can still be reluctant to demonstrate their interest in subjects regarded as a more masculine domain, such as maths and, to a lesser degree, science.

Still, effective education policy can make a difference.

“Back in the 1990s, when girls started to catch up with boys in some of those subjects, and did better because of certain strategies and plans, there was a panic that boys were falling behind,” Proctor says.

Girls need to see women who have successful STEM careers, she says, adding: “You need a critical mass of women.”

The federal education department’s STEM Professionals in Schools program is a national school-industry initiative that connects schools and teachers with professionals working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

A department spokesman says the program is intended is to broker informal partnerships between STEM professionals, teachers and students, to build their understanding of how STEM skills and knowledge are used in the real world.

“A recent focus for the program has been to increase participation of female STEM professionals,” the spokesman says, “and over 43 per cent of the current STEM professionals are female.”