Mathematics departments are under pressure. Academic positions for younger mathematicians are disappearing. Shortages of well qualified mathematics and science teachers are flagged. Research is an integral part of Australian universities, and Australian mathematical research is generally strong. Nevertheless, in the future not all departments can be fully funded for research.
Universities have a particular responsibility to nurture young talent.
This submission from the National Committee for Mathematics makes no attempt to cover all of the issues confronting the Higher Education Review. Rather, it focuses on issues that relate to the role of the mathematical sciences in higher education. Since the time of the earliest mediaeval universities mathematics has played a prominent role. Thus the quadrivium contained geometry and arithmetic, along with astronomy and music. Later centuries saw the entry of algebra and calculus, and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw explosive growth in number theory, set theory, statistics, mathematical modelling, digital computation, control theory, and applications to ever-widening areas.