ARE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING BECOMING UN-AUSTRALIAN?
T. Fred Smith
An examination of enrolments in undergraduate and postgraduate research courses in science and engineering in Australia reveals a significant over-reliance on overseas (full fee) and local students born overseas. The implications of this imbalance for the future of science and engineering research in Australia are explored.
INTRODUCTION
A recent detailed study by David North[1] in the United States of America has found that American-born students are moving away from post-graduate studies in science and engineering in preference for qualifications in medicine, law, business and finance. Increasingly, it is overseas-born temporary residents who are filling the places in the U.S. PhD programmes in science and engineering.
It has to be emphasised that it is at the postgraduate level that native-born Americans are abandoning science and engineering. Their participation at the bachelors level has not changed significantly between 1977 and 1990. North provides, as an example, the statistic that in 1990 5.4 per cent of bachelor's degrees in science and engineering were awarded to holders of temporary resident visas, whereas 27.0 per cent of master's degrees went to this group. In the case of the PhD, 32.4 per cent went to temporary residents.[2]
North also found that approximately 60 per cent of these overseas-born temporary-resident scientists and engineers secure employment in the USA following graduation and then gain green-card' residency status and subsequently US citizenship.
While recognising that overseas-born scientists and engineers make a significant contribution to the U.S. economy, North has asserted that their willingness to accept wages and conditions that are apparently unattractive to U.S.-born persons detracts from efforts to encourage the recruitment of U.S.-born students into science and engineering. Furthermore, as it is at the PhD level that the impact of overseas-born scientists and engineers occurs, it is in the research laboratories and universities where this dependence is most evident. In the latter area North states, Foreign-born graduate students, it is generally agreed, are helping to maintain the strength of a major American intellectual structure, graduate education in science and engineering'.[3]
In Australia, concern has also been expressed over the falling demand for university undergraduate places in science and engineering and the movement of the best students into medicine, business and law. The reluctance of young Australians to enter into higher degree studies in science and engineering is also of long-standing concern. A decade ago it was reported that overseas students were playing an increasingly crucial role in university research programmes'.[4] In 1986 over a quarter of full-time postgraduate students in science, and approximately one-half those in engineering, were from overseas.
In view of the American experience, it is vital to investigate the current Australian situation in regard to the education and training of our future scientists and engineers. This paper examines the level of enrolment of overseas students (that is those here on temporary student visas and paying full fees) and the country of birth of local students (including both Australian-born and overseas-born students holding Australian citizenship, permanent residence or New Zealand citizenship) in under- graduate and postgraduate enrolments in science and engineering in 1995. The information has been extracted from Department of Employment, Education, Training (DEET) enrolment data.
UNDERGRADUATE ENROLMENTS IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Overseas students comprise 6.9 per cent and 9.0 per cent of the total undergraduate enrolment in science and engineering respectively (Table 1). While these levels are higher than the proportion of bachelors degrees in science and engineering awarded in the U.S. to holders of temporary visas, they are not dramatically so. Among the local students, 23.7 per cent of scientists and 29 per cent of engineers are overseas-born, compared with 20.7 per cent for the local undergraduate university student population as a whole.[5] Furthermore, 1991 census data reveal that the overseas-born Australian residents in the 15-24 year-old age group (18-27 year old age group by 1995) comprise 14.7 per cent of the total cohort. These figures are indicative of the under-representation of Australian-born students in higher education in general, which is then compounded by the reluctance of those who do attend to enrol in science and engineering studies.
We explore the country of birth for the major groups of those local students who are Australian citizens or have permanent resident status (Australian residents) in Table 2. The percentage of these students who arrived in Australia before 1986 is also recorded.
[Table 2].
The share of Vietnamese-born students in the undergraduate enrolment of overseas-born local students in both science (14 per cent) and engineering (19 per cent) is striking, particularly as Vietnamese-born students constitute about ten per cent of overseas-born local students.[6] It is also notable that many of these students are predominantly long-term residents with approximately 50 per cent arriving prior to 1986. U.K. and Irish-born Australian residents are also strongly represented in both science (16 per cent) and engineering (9 per cent) and, perhaps not so surprisingly, approximately 75 per cent of these are pre-1986 arrivals. By contrast, the Hong-Kong and Malaysian-born Australian residents who also rep- resent significant components of the under- graduate science and engineering enrolments are mostly recent arrivals.
In summary, as far as overseas students are concerned, enrolment levels in undergraduate science and engineering courses in Australia do not appear to be greatly different to those in the U.S.A. However, the high level of enrolments by overseas-born local students does distinguish the Australian situation from that in America.
ENROLMENT IN HIGHER DEGREES BY RESEARCH IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Data for total enrolments in higher degrees by research (HDR) in science and engineering are presented in Table 3. Here we find in 1995 that 14.9 per cent of research postgraduates in science and 22.1 per cent in engineering were overseas students. The populations of science and engineering research postgraduates have approximately doubled since 1985. Despite this, these 1995 percentages are remarkably close to the overseas student enrolments of 16.2 per cent and 23.4 per cent, respectively, in 1985. Details of the major birthplaces of the HDR overseas students enrolled in 1995 are provided in Table 4. The Chinese and Iranian presence in both science and engineering is noticeable. Moreover, when the overseas-born local student numbers are added to the overseas student numbers, the impact of the overseas-born on the total enrolment in HDR is quite startling. Together the two groups represent 42.3 per cent of the HDR science population and 59.8 per cent of the HDR engineering population, proportions that are considerably higher than those reported for America.[7]
[Table 3]
When overseas students are removed from the figures, Australian-born HDR candidates comprise 67.8 per cent of the science enrolment and 51.6 per cent of the engineering enrolment (yet, of the relevant 18-27 year old age cohort, the Australian-born make up about 85 per cent). Thus, it is clear that even for local students, postgraduate enrolments are heavily dependent upon overseas-born candidates, particularly in engineering. Indeed, the number of overseas-born local students in both science and engineering exceeds the number of overseas students.
Data on country of birth for overseas-born local students enrolled in under- graduate courses have already been presented. Table 5 repeats this analysis for postgraduates enrolled in HDR courses. There are different patterns between the science and engineering enrolments, though Chinese and U.K. and Irish-born Australian residents are the major groups in both cases, with the Chinese-born favouring engineering and the U.K. and Irish-born favouring science. There is, however, a very marked difference in the period of residency with the Chinese-born being predominantly post-1986 arrivals, whereas the U. K. and Irish-born are largely pre-1986 arrivals.
In the case of the engineering HDR candidates, significant proportions of the overseas-born local students were born in India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Vietnam. It is only in the latter case that the arrival date of candidates in Australia was predominantly prior to 1986.
Of the science HDR candidates, the U.K. and Irish-born group is by far the dominant component of overseas-born local students. After the Chinese-born and New Zealand-born, there is no other major group, though the proportions for Australian residents born in the U.S.A., Canada and Poland are worth noting.
In terms of the length of residency in Australia, a high proportion of the Chinese-born local group are post-1986 arrivals, followed by the Indian, Hong Kong and Sri Lankan-born groups.
DISCUSSION
From the above analysis there emerges a picture of a strong dependence on overseas students and overseas-born local students for the future of engineering and, to a somewhat lesser extent, science in Australia. In contrast with America, the analysis indicates that Australia's dependence is experienced at the under- graduate as well as the postgraduate level. Furthermore, while the American concerns are focused on the impact of the recruitment of temporary residents into postgraduate programmes in science and engineering, the situation in Australia is considerably more complex due to the high level of participation of overseas-born local students as well as overseas students who have entered on a temporary basis. It is therefore important to separate the issues associated with overseas-born enrolment in science and engineering at the undergraduate and postgraduate level.
UNDERGRADUATES
The arrival times for the overseas-born local science and engineering under- graduates indicates that many of these students will have undertaken the majority, if not all, of their education in Australia. This raises a number of questions associated with the underlying motivation for their choice. Why are they prepared to embark on a course of study that is unattractive to Australian-born students? Anecdotal evidence points to the lower emphasis on English language skills, particularly in writing, as a factor attracting students from a non-English-speaking background into undergraduate studies in science and engineering. However, this is unlikely to be a universal answer. Is it cultural? Will it persist to the next generation? What will be the impact of the proposed increases in the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) for science and engineering courses?
Is recruitment into undergraduate studies in science and engineering going to become increasingly dependent upon the young migrants?
Is the willingness of overseas-born students (both local and full fee) to enter into training in science and engineering offsetting attempts to make these disciplines attractive career prospects for Australian-born students?
POSTGRADUATES
At the postgraduate level in Australia close to two thirds of both the overseas-born Australian engineering HDR candidates and science HDR candidates are local students with approximately 60 per cent holding Australian citizenship. By contrast, in the U.S.A. the overseas-born science and engineering postgraduates are predominantly temporary residents. The arrival times of these Australian candidates suggest that a significant proportion of them will have received some, if not all, of their undergraduate education in Australia. At the same time, overseas students are also playing a significant role in maintaining the level of postgraduate enrolment in science and engineering.
The major part of the basic research undertaken in Australia is performed in the universities and, in the laboratory disciplines, it is intimately linked with the research training of postgraduates. Thus, the overseas full fee students are important in maintaining the level of postgraduate enrolment and the conduct of basic re- search in science and engineering. In this respect there is a parallel with the American situation, where it is claimed that the overseas students have provided the needed enrolment to keep graduate departments from shrinking and to prevent the closure of otherwise unwanted programmes.[8]
The expansion of the Australian university system to include the former institutes and colleges of advanced education has created a demand for post- graduates to fill newly-established research programmes, particularly in science and engineering. Having completed their studies, what are the employment opportunities?
As was noted in North's study, a PhD qualification is not generally sought by engineers entering the workforce outside universities or research laboratories. This is equally true in Australia and applies to a large extent to scientists as well as to engineers. With many of the overseas students seeking employment in Australia following graduation, there is the potential danger of an over-supply of PhD-qualified scientists and engineers which, as in the U.S.A., will only reinforce the already evident unattractiveness of careers in these areas to young Australian-born students.
CONCLUSION
In the face of a lack of interest by Australian-born students in entering into studies in science and engineering, places are being filled at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels by overseas-born local students and by fee-paying overseas students. The level of recruitment of overseas students into higher-degree-by-research candidature reflects the need for such students in order to maintain university research programmes as much as the revenue gained from these fees.
The willingness of overseas students to enter into training in science and engineering may help to solve the universities' problems in filling places and sustaining their research programs but it does nothing to improve the attractiveness of these programs for local students. Nor will it help matters if these fields came to be seen as the domain of overseas-born students.
Acknowledgment
The author gratefully acknowledges the data analysis performed by Virginia Rapson.
References
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