In making this submission I am speaking as an applied mathematician (PhD in computational general relativity), who is currently a Director of a privately owned consulting firm specialising in data analysis and statistics for business, government and environment sectors.
Firstly, I would like to comment on a gap in this theme and the plan in general. The phrasing of the third theme under this subcommittee is very telling: “Exploring the best ways to establish or improve business and industry’s links with the mathematical sciences”. This perpetuates the perception that maths and stats is something done outside business and industry – that they are essentially research fields, and industry is a customer.
While public mathematics and statistics research is important, we suggest that the recognition and development of mathematical/statistical practitioners is absolutely fundamental to the long-term success of the profession.
Australian government statistics (via joboutlook.gov.au) define Actuaries, Mathematicians and Statisticians as a very small occupation with 6,200 participants in November 2011. However, this does not adequately reflect the broad range of professions that require mathematical skills.
The 2012 “Mathematics in Industry” report from the USA based Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) recognises a range of industry areas that rely on strong mathematics/statistics graduates (e.g. business analytics, mathematical finance, systems biology, oil and mining exploration, manufacturing and operations research, urban planning). One key finding was that “almost none of the (surveyed) mathematicians have mathematics in their job title” (statisticians will more often have statistics in their job title.)
My personal experience is that this is compounded by the fact that a number of the growth areas for jobs (e.g. ‘data science’) are very new and not yet adequately reflected in standard occupational classifications.
The increasing role for mathematical/statistical practitioners is evidenced in part by the growth in professional association memberships. The Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia recorded over a 70% increase in membership over the last year (as reported at the 2012 AGM) with the majority of members working in finance or consulting services. Of the top twenty employers, only one was a university.
The growth in quantitative analysis across many fields is a massive opportunity for graduates with strong understanding of mathematics/statistics theory combined with IT/programming skills and general communication skills. Certainly the job market opportunities are hugely increased from what was available when I graduated in the early 2000s. So why aren’t students lining up for maths or stats degrees?
My personal experience is that the small number of maths and stats graduates compounds with the fact that other industries (IT/engineering/market research etc.) are strongly promoting these practitioner roles. This means that mathematics/statistics is not automatically regarded as a necessary skill for many of these roles, and the vast majority of undergraduates I speak to are not aware of these opportunities. Certainly when we recently recruited for an analyst position, we received a number of submissions from people with no mathematics or statistics training.
It is for this reason that we advocate that this decadal plan must have a role in dispelling the perception that “real” maths and stats is only done in research institutions.
I believe that this problem with “brand mathematics” is an integral question for the decadal plan, and goes to that heart of the issue underpinning the training, research and collaboration requirements to support mathematics practitioners.
In essence, I see the issues as:
- Mathematical and statistical practitioners are out there, but have a range of names and roles. In the last few weeks alone I’ve met a number of maths/stats graduates using varying levels of their quantitative skills for software engineering, economics, ecology and operations research.
- There is very little overlap between professional bodies for practitioners and researchers.
- There are a small number of graduates in maths and stats, compared to IT, finance etc.
- This leads to a watering down of skills – many roles that require strong mathematical skills are often filled with candidates with ‘transferable’ skills from other fields
But there are potential solutions – promoting maths and stats as a brand by finding, recognising and communicating the importance of maths & stats practitioners in the private sector, for example:
- A role for professional bodies to identify and track trends in jobs requiring mathematics and statistics. Industry bodies undertake similar work (e.g. the IAPA skills and salary survey or regular work by bodies like APESMA) but these are not focussed on maths/stats. You simply cannot manage what you don’t measure.
- Real cross-education and promotion between the more traditional research bodies (AustMS and SSAI) and industry-focussed groups (e.g. IAPA, market research bodies, finance and IT). This would provide additional opportunities for practitioners to access ongoing professional development.
- Concerted recognition and promotion of mathematics/statistics practitioners (whatever their actual job title). The SSAI accreditation is a start, but still is much easier for a researcher with traditional publication track record (or at least, that is the perception).