Education reform needs stronger science focus, says La Trobe Chancellor

With higher education undergoing profound change - reflecting challenges in environmental degradation, food security, emerging diseases and more - La Trobe University Chancellor Adrienne E Clarke AC has called for urgent action to boost Australia’s scientific understanding and awareness.

Professor Clarke’s comments came while delivering the university’s Science, Technology and Engineering Dean’s Public Lecture titled ‘Science and its role in solving global problems’ on 12 July at the university’s Bendigo campus. The former CSIRO chairman says this action needs to apply to the education of professionals like lawyers, regulators and bankers as well as farmers and manufacturers.

“It is particularly important for politicians and their advisors who make the decisions, on behalf of society, regarding the use of technology,” Professor Clarke said.

“We also need the social scientists, the psychologists, the people who study the behaviour of humans and human societies and how governments work to understand the scientific advances.”

Two of the most important drivers of global change, she said, were population growth and the rate of discovery in science and technology. The “explosion of knowledge” has been extraordinary.

We have moved in one lifetime from “a world in which there were no antibiotics, television or international air travel” to a scientific and technological age which will see an estimated doubling of knowledge every 15-20 years - and another two billion people on earth within the next 35 years.

“This has many consequences and presents many really tough challenges,” Professor Clarke said.

“The solution to many of these large-scale problems will be through science and technology, both discovery and application, and it will take years of persistent work.

“We will see continuations of the basic disciplines, such as mathematics, physics, biology, geology, but we now have whole new disciplines emerging at their interfaces - for example, molecular genetics, bioinformatics, environmental management and neurobiology.

“We cannot predict what will emerge from the emerging new knowledge. We should do our best to understand how to use it wisely.”

Professor Clarke said that in recognising the critical importance of science to future societies, La Trobe University has developed a focus on “teaching the teachers” of science.

“We are doing this through the collaborative efforts of the faculties of education and science and through close links with the Charles La Trobe College and Quantum Victoria.

“This goal of teaching exciting, innovative, science and maths teachers is now urgent. Australia’s numeracy skills at school level (15-year-olds) have declined in the international rankings to the 11th place. China, Finland and South Korea are well ahead of us.”

Professor Clarke commended La Trobe for its leadership in the field of science. Apart from the university’s focus on science and technology education, she said it was also a scientific leader in Australia in biochemistry.

“La Trobe Biochemistry was the only school in Australia to be given a top five ranking (‘Outstanding performance, well above world standard’) in the recent ERA (excellence in research assessment) by the Commonwealth Government.”

A new, world-class, $94 million La Trobe Institute of Molecular Science building will be completed later this year.