Research not bad, but not stellar

As reported by the Australian, the Australian Innovation System Report 2010 ranks physics, geosciences, space sciences, environment and mathematics among Australia’s strongest research fields (as measured by impact factor of publications), with the country as a whole ranked 16th among OECD countries.   (via Birgit Loch)

A national strategy for mathematics in Australia

The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute has just placed on its web site a strategy paper entitled “A national strategy for mathematics in Australia” to combat the shortages of maths graduates and teachers in Australia, authored by Hyam Rubinstein (chair of the National Committee for the Mathematical Sciences).  The paper has a number of specific recommendations [...]

Maths trust calls for teaching shakeup

In a brief item for ABC news, Peter Taylor of the Australian Mathematics Trust notes declining enrolments in advanced mathematics in Australian schools and universities, and calls for an increased emphasis on problem-solving skills in maths classes in schools that go beyond the current curriculum. Coincidentally, in the recent article “Is the sky still falling?” [...]

Maths majors in Australia in decline

Over at the Funneled Web, fellow contributor Peter Hall reports on the continued decline in the number of maths majors in Australian universities, and a related decline in the number of high school students taking advanced maths courses. [Update, Dec 9: By coincidence, the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) on fourth [...]

National Curriculum in Mathematics

The National Curriculum Board has just initiated its public consultation period for its draft proposed curriculum on mathematics (concurrently with similar consultations on science, history, and English), as reported on recently in the Australian, the Courier-Mail, the Age, and elsewhere.  The draft, which is to be implemented in 2011, draws upon the National Declaration of [...]

The National “Numeracy” Review

[This post is authored by Judy Mousley - Ed.] I was asked by Terry to write a guest article for the blog in my capacity as President of MERGA, but the words below have been written in a personal capacity. I encourage other MERGA members to add their thoughts, as those below are certainly not [...]

Gazette Issue 3 (July 2008) now online

Issue 3 of the Gazette for 2008 is now available online. Many Gazette readers will, no doubt, have experienced the `culture of numbers’ that has resulted from the growing reliance on quantitative methods to measure the quality of academic research.  In this issue we are very pleased to include a report from the International Mathematics [...]

Citation statistics

There is an interesting new report “Citation statistics“, jointly produced by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), International Council of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), on the use and abuse of various citation statistics (such as impact factors and h-indices) as proxies for research quality.  (One of the authors, [...]

Maths in the UK

Student numbers are consistently drifting from high- to medium-level mathematics courses, and migrating from there to the lowest level.  The nation needs mathematics, and mathematicians, to keep up with its traditional commercial rivals, and also with newer competitors such as China and India; yet the mathematics economy is losing out.  It’s cool to drop out [...]