Showing posts with label universities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label universities. Show all posts

Men Choose Degrees That Provide Good Incomes

There is a reason more women are not in high income occupations. Let's face it the truth is the truth - most women do not have a mathematical mind. It is based on evolution where women developed social skills to collect berries and tubers. Men on the other hand had to hunt dangerous large animals and this needed calculating brains.

Even today the sexes express their differences. More men choose university degrees in maths, engineering, technology and science. This where big money is earned. Humanities degrees especially the common or garden Bachelor of Arts will leave you in the unemployment line.

Australians generally persist in studying for a BA despite all the statistics showing how weak this honor is. They know it is easy to get, but the easy way is not the best and more rational way.

Just choosing a non-humanities degree is not that easy for females. A few have extremely good mathematical skills. They are at least equal to men. Most do not have the mental precondition to do well in maths at school.

As an example, a quarter of men choose engineering degrees. Only 3.7 per cent of females choose this course of study. The only "maths" area of science studied by more women than men is veterinary science.
Education by Ty Buchanan
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Neither Labor Nor Liberal Understand the Needs of Education

With fewer students choosing not to maths and science, or even worse doing badly in the subjects, there is a real shortage of people who can work in big data tech. Research scientists for universities are simply not there. Business pays twice as much as universities. Basically, universities need more money. The government is doing nothing about this commercial reality.

Labor took a big chunk out of university funding with its educational reforms. The Liberal national government has promised less for both universities and schools, despite the Abbott back down. Just what the government plans to do is unknown at present. The Gonsky reforms are up in the air. Some states are not yet on board and states who have signed want the money promised by Labor.

Universities are in the wings waiting for some kind of positive action by the government. If the Gonsky funding goes ahead there will very little left for the tertiary sector. Robbing tertiary to fund schools does not make any sense. Both should have got a larger slice of the money pie. This is like taking money out of high schools and giving it to kindergartens. It is not rational. Education is a complete working body, from top to bottom. Maybe Chrisopher Pyne was right in his claim that we need a new start, but his version announced as cutting future spending in all educational sectors is not on.
Education by Ty Buchanan
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Education by Ty Buchanan
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Too Many Maths and Science Graduates

For many years it has been said that Australia lacks maths and science graduates. Maths teachers are in short supply we are told. Professor Ian Chubb, a chief scientist, certainly pushes this case.

Unfortunately, data does not support this premise. Like qualified information technology people, maths and science graduates find the job market difficult. It seems there is real demand only in geological science. A little more than half of graduates say their qualifications are relevant to their work. They hold down jobs only in distantly related fields.

One would think that with science and technology moving forward at a rapid pace such qualified people would be sorely needed. Employment in agricultural science is falling because young people are leaving rural towns and refuse to learn about farming. It is seen as glorified laboring.

Getting a post-graduate qualification does not help to find work. Employers see higher degrees as narrowing educational scope. Government is continuing to push universities to offer science and maths teaching despite labor demand falling. Places for teachers are available, but when first employed new teachers have to work for ten years or more in the bush before they can choose where they want to live.

Though historically Australian culture was based on bush life, today the young are urbanites. They love big cities and living near the ocean. The trend is for elderly grandparents to spend their last days in rural areas, while their offspring live it up on the coast. Maths and science, however, may not be the road to financial success.
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Conservation
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Academic Papers Could Soon Be Publicly Available

The era of academic journals being closed off from the general public by financial barriers is coming to an end. Publishers are terrified by this. It means they will have to get funding from other sources rather than annual subscriptions. There will be a time limit placed on articles, so after a short period they will have to be released so everyone can read them.

This move is being put forward by the UK government. It is pushing for open access from the very beginning of publication. Unfortunately, the government intends to make authors pay publishers. This is unrealistic. Admittedly, university lecturers are in a secure financial position. However, scientists find it difficult to get funding and allocating part of income on publication is another financial burden.

Universities are saying that the government is looking after publishers, protecting their income while passing the cost onto educational institutions. Martin Hall says we must move forward to get full funding in advance. Unfortunately, he does say how this money is to be obtained. UK researchers are planning to offer some work for free while saving their best for payment from journal publishers. This is too much like the present where only 5 per cent of articles are in gold open access.

This does look bleak for publishers who will steadily "go to the wall", and Universities who will pay either way. If most articles are going to be free, then the cost of the fewer "advanced" papers will cost much more. Governments will ultimately pay for the cost as the institutions are largely public bodies. In the current economic climate this cannot be sustained.
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Science
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Financial Encouragement Is Needed in Computing and Maths

Despite the widespread use of computers, Australia is not producing enough qualified computer specialists. Although the computer related economy is equal to mining, and the extractive industry is what is driving the Australian economy and keeping the dollar strong, too few young people are willing to study for employment in the digital industry.

This is probably because everyone is a little computer "savvy" and most believe that there is not much more to learn. Of course this is a mistake. You may have a website and know a trick or two, but there is a barrier that you cannot jump over if you are to truly understand the whole area, unless you are a born computer geek where you soak up all the knowledge like a sponge.

What academics fail to understand though is that computer study is very much like learning mathematics. Students are avoiding maths like the "plague" because there are much easier subjects to do. For example, English and History teachers are a dime a dozen. This has been caused by governments wrongly allocating funds in the past. Universities and colleges are also to blame as they try to maximize student numbers irrespective of subject area.

Financial encouragement needs to be in place to tempt students into the "difficult" kinds of study. Some people have a gift for maths. Ironically, today many of these are girls. In the past boys believed maths was a boys' thing and they took pride in studying it. Cutting tertiary fees in the maths and computers areas is absolutely necessary to bring numbers up to the nation's requirements.
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Education
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Fuel From Enzymes Feeding on Plant Waste

There is hope yet that people will reduce their use of fossil fuel. CSIRO is working with universities to make biofuels from enzyme interaction with plant waste. The product will be low-emission. It will not divert resources from food production because only unwanted plant material will be used.

The mere growing of food crops will balance out the carbon dioxide pushed into the environment by using such fuels. Growing plants absorb carbon dioxide thus keeping it out of the atmosphere. More profit for the farmer from this by-product is a good thing because it will encourage planting of more crops.

With oil running out it is paramount to find other ways of creating fuel. Enzymes that will do this have been identified by CSIRO. The research body's target sector is transport, freight movers. Trucking causes a third of the toxic gases emitted into the environment.
~~~~~Science~~~~~
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