Only 15 per cent of STEM jobs are held by women, and just 23 per cent of senior management, and eight per cent of CEOs in STEM-qualified industries are women, according to 2023 data.

This has resulted in a 17 per cent, or $27,012, gender pay gap in STEM industries.

Bias, stereotyping, and negative social experiences in STEM "begin early in life and have a significant impact on girls and women’s development of confidence and interest in STEM," according to the Advancing Women in STEM strategy from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

These experiences often lead to a belief that STEM 'isn't for women', reflected in data that shows young girls generally don't want to go into STEM careers because they're not interested in the subjects, or the subject matter doesn't relate to the career they want.

Low confidence in STEM starts in primary school, and, if social experiences don't improve, will lower with age, and accelerate a lack of interest in science and maths in young girls.

Girls make up a quarter of enrolments in year 12 information technology, physics and engineering classes, women make up 37 per cent of enrolments in university STEM courses, and 17 per cent of vocational education STEM courses.

It starts early

Seeing other girls participate in STEM and directing science and maths activities towards girls can help close the gap, Dr James Curran, chief of ed-tech charity Grok Academy, said.

"If a student has a great experience of digital technologies at school, and in the role models around them, in my observation there is no difference in the level of interest in boys or girls," he explained.

"If they don't have a great experience at school, it tends to have much more of an impact on whether the girls are prepared to continue studying it, and that starts from years five and six, [when] girls start making decisions about what they won't be."

Monash University associate professor Christen Mirth said her start in STEM in high school was supported by her parents, and inspired by her mother, who went back to university in her 40s to gain a masters and PhD.

"My mother is dynamite," she said.

"This, 'you don't frame yourself by your limitations' attitude was prevalent in my household.

"If I were having to battle gender stereotypes at home in addition to battle societal gender stereotypes, it would've been so much harder, so I recognise that I come from this really great position of privilege, and that my parents could afford to send me to university.

"In fact, when I chose biology, they sort of went, 'oh, that makes sense'. And then my dad said, 'are you sure you don't want to be a doctor?'

The scientist said she also had a friend in high school who's mother studied mushrooms and other fungi, which made her realise she wanted a career where she would get her hands dirty.

She also didn't know there were fewer women in STEM subjects until she stared at university.

"The powerful thing behind having a mother who goes back to do her master's and her PhD after her kids have gone off to university, is that it also demonstrates that there is no one correct path to get anywhere, that you can change your mind, that not everyone's trajectories are linear and that's okay," she said.

"I think a lot of those things contributed to where I'm right now."

Insidious behaviour

Small interactions that play into gender stereotypes started to creep into her career post-university, and, at first, she said it was a hard thing to pinpoint.

"It's those little tiny moments that you notice that your confidence gets a little bit eroded: being challenged in meetings, being challenged at conferences, being approached at conferences for not necessarily the right reasons," she said.

"That's the really insidious thing about everyday sexism.

"It's just when that thing feels slightly off and you're not quite sure if it was somebody treating you differently because you're a female and yet you've never seen it happen to a male colleague."

The biologist said she had to build a support network of friends and colleagues to cope with the "death by a thousand cuts" style of unconscious gender bias.

Now, she does what she can to support less-experienced women in STEM who aren't sure how to combat sexist microaggressions.

Doing it differently

She is the associate dean of equity, diversity and inclusion at Monash’s faculty of science, a committee that runs events and support functions for marginalised groups at the university.

"At some point I realised that things won't change on their own, unless I start stepping up," she said.

She said one of the things she can do for younger women is, if she is organising a conference or event, make sure that event has a code of conduct.

Universities have strict rules and reporting processes about harassment, but a large part of STEM work takes place at conferences or "in the field", where the lines of acceptable behaviour are often blurred.

"At this point in the game, I feel like I'm pretty good at shutting inappropriate conversations down, because I've developed the skills to say, "actually, that doesn't make me feel very comfortable."

"[But, there's still] that instinct of asking, 'do I need to be on the defensive here because I'm not sure what their intention is, it's [an evening conference] and everyone's had a bit of wine?'

"A code of conduct would say that everyone is worthy of respect, harassment of any type is not tolerated, and that the people that are present at the conference have a duty of care to call out behaviours.

"I also think it's really important that there be a 'safe person' at conferences or in workplaces."

We need them

Associate professor Mirth said if she could give advice to a young girl interested in STEM, she would tell her to not be deterred by negative social experiences.

"My advice would be that we need her, that we absolutely need her, and that if she loves what she's doing, the trick is only to surround yourself with the right people," she said.

"There are fantastic people out there and we all have our own little personal armies.

"I'd hate to see someone's passion be destroyed by a negative social experience.

"We need women to be involved in STEM. We need their unique perspectives and the joy and passion that they will bring to their job.

"We need the fact that their histories are going to be different from a lot of other people's that are more represented.

"Those voices are so valuable they help make science and innovation more innovative."

Manuel Graeber, a neuropathologist with a highly regarded research record who held the university’s Barnet-Cropper Chair of Brain Tumor Research, was found by an internal review committee to have committed “serious misconduct”. Professor Graeber, who has been suspended from his duties at the university since August, has set up a GoFundMe page to support other academic whistleblowers and fund his proposed academic defence union.

“Australia needs good universities where academic values and principles rule and are not stamped upon,” Professor Graeber said in a message to fellow academics. “That’s worth a fight in my opinion.”

Professor Graeber told a Tasmanian parliamentary committee in a hearing last year that his “persecution” by University of Sydney management followed a public interest disclosure he had made involving “managerial abuse” and misconduct.

The University of Sydney Association of Professors (USAP), of which Professor Graeber is president, has strongly backed him in his long-running dispute with the university. A letter signed last month by 17 members of the USAP council linked Professor Graeber’s suspension to public interest disclosures describing “alleged wrongdoing by the university’s management”.

The council’s letter said Professor Graeber’s suspension was “seeming retribution by management for him fulfilling his USAP and fundamental public responsibilities via his public disclosures”.

Professor Graeber’s termination came after the review committee considered three matters alleged by the university – that Professor Graeber had failed to teach a class as directed, that he had barred entry to his office and pointed an iPhone camera at the door, and refused to take part in a meeting about his performance.

Professor Graeber has defended his actions saying the camera was to protect highly valuable scientific material he held – slides of brain tissue used by Alois Alzheimer in the early 1900s to diagnose the first case of what became known as Alzheimer’s disease. He also has said he refused to teach the class because he lacked the required expertise and had offered a suitable replacement. Regarding the performance meeting, Professor Graeber told the committee he believed the outcome was predetermined.

The University of Sydney said in a statement that it couldn’t comment on individual matters but strongly refuted any suggestion that it would take action against a staff member for expressing their opinions. The university said it protected those making public interest disclosures from detriment, in line with its policies and legislation.

“All our community is free to express their opinions, including about our university,” the statement said.

The Honourable Patricia Forsythe AM will take over the position from Chancellor Mr Paul Jeans upon his retirement after more than 10 years in the role.

Ms Forsythe most recently held the position of Australia’s High Commissioner to New Zealand, from 2019 to 22. Prior to that she served as Executive Director of the Sydney Business Chamber from 2006 to 2019, and a Liberal member of the NSW Legislative Council.

Chair of the selection committee, deputy chancellor Mr Kevin Young, commented on Ms Forsyth’s appointment as Chancellor.

“Patricia has the right mix of skills, business acumen, and breadth of professional and board experience to successfully perform this important role,” Mr Young said.

Ms Forsythe is a Newcastle native and an alumnus of the University of Newcastle, where she received a Bachelor of Arts (Diploma of Education).

“As someone with a lifelong commitment to education and having been born, raised, and educated in Newcastle, it is a special honour to have been appointed Chancellor of the University of Newcastle,” Ms Forsythe said.

“The community aspect of universities, and particularly my direct linkages to and appreciation of the University of Newcastle, is meaningful to me. 

I believe this will enable me to lead the University effectively with my heart in the right place.”

Ms Forsythe will commence as Chancellor on 1 January 2024.

"What the WHO was doing was spreading misinformation," Professor Morawska told Campus Review.

"I said to myself, something has to be done because after all these years of studies, I knew it was airborne, but no one was interested in seeing this."

In the early stages of Covid, the world's top health agency believed the virus was transmitted via droplets from the nose and mouth.

At the time, Professor Morawska had worked as a WHO advisory since 1998 and had decades of experience studying air quality.

She had previously worked on the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which struck Hong Kong in 2003 and led to 298 deaths.

"When SARS happened, little was known about how the particles from human respiratory activities are generated and what happens to them in the air," Professor Morawska said.

"That's when I decided to expand my research field and investigate particles from respiratory activities."

In efforts to alert the general public about the nature of Covid transmission Professor Morawska then led a team of 240 international experts who proved scientifically the disease was airborne.

Alongside 33 other academics she wrote a paper titled "It Is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)".

The paper, which took three months to write, would go on to change how the government and the global health community viewed the pandemic.

"It was so difficult just to get this key information out," she said.

"I wasn't thinking about my career then; all I wanted was changing this mindset of the national authorities, bring awareness to people and help lower the risk of infection transmission."

It was not until mid-2021 that WHO acknowledged Covid-19 could be spread via air and changed its recommendations.

According to Professor Morawska, by then several countries had already set wrong guidelines and missed vital opportunities to save people's lives.

For her work raising awareness around COVID-19's airborne spread, Professor Morawska was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.

More recently she won the Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture, Australia's Academy of Science's highest distinction, for her contributions to the field throughout her career. 

"When there is recognition for my work, it's never just mine; it's always an achievement working with colleagues because this is an interdisciplinary area," Professor Morawska said.

"I wouldn't have been able to do even a fraction of this work by myself.

"But each time we are recognised, it motivates me to work harder and fulfil more dreams regarding what we can do in the future."

Professor Morawska said her passion for science began at a young age.

"What was the reason for this initial decision? I don't remember exactly," she said.

"My parents were educated; my mum was a chemist, and my father an electrical engineer. They would always provide reading materials, and we had a lot of discussions about science."

"That certainly helped me develop my interest."

Growing up in the small city of Przemyśl in southeastern Poland, Professor Morawska followed a traditional schooling path.

In 1982 she became a physicist after completing her doctorate in radon at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

From 1987 to 1991, she moved to Canada to become a postdoctoral research fellow at the International Atomic Energy Agency, where she developed her interest in studying air quality.

At the time, the now Professor was researching radon progeny and had an opportunity to use rare instruments to measure the size distribution and concentration of particles in the air.

One day, she had the idea to use the instruments in the streets of downtown Toronto and found surprising results which changed her entire career trajectory.

"I found out the concentration of these particles was extreme. There were hundreds of thousands of these particles, and this was mind-blowing; where are they coming from?," she said.

"I thought that relation must have been from the cars on the street, but there was absolutely nothing about this in the literature because the instrument was generally used only in laboratory studies."

Professor Morawska said this was the moment she knew she would pursue atmospheric sciences and work to fill a widening research gap.

In 1991, she flew to Australia for the first time and was appointed as senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology before being promoted to Professor in 2003.

Over the past two decades, she has established the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health Center at QUT in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.

Professor Morawska continues to research indoor air quality standards and wishes to continue mentoring her PhD student.

"I enjoy seeing my students develop, they sometimes arrive without knowledge in the area and little background research experience, and seeing them blossom and come up with amazing things," she said.

"In the end, we share ideas and it's that close relationship of on working together which eventually come to fruition in terms of completion of the paper or discovering something some new.

"If there were no students or staff, by myself, there is only that much I could do in this very broad field."

Speaking to a conference, ChatLLM23, on the ethics of generative AI last week, Professor Kay said she was “right in the thick” of education AI issues.

She is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education.

Her eight challenges, which she presented to the conference, are:

Curriculum change: Students need to be taught skills in the new AI tools that will be widely used in business and the professions to generate documents, write computer code, solve mathematical problems, generate education material and enable collaboration between humans and machines.

New job areas are also appearing, such as “prompt engineering” to give AI systems the best prompts to generate the required output.

Human control and responsibility: “It’s fine to use AI. But the real point is that ultimately you’re responsible. We need deep awareness of limitations of the tools,” Professor Kay said.

She pointed out that we do not even have a word for “fact-checking” AI output.

Educators building confidence: “We have to get educators to the point where they can do the first two,” she said.

Harness AI in educators’ current work: Educators must use AI and explore what it can and can’t do. For example, ask it to write an exam, and then critically examine how good the result is.

Accessibility implications: AI can make things better for those with a disability. For example, it can write alt text, which describes web page images to vision-impaired people.

AI regulation fit for education: Because most education is aimed at children and young people, particular care needs to be taken to regulate AI-driven education.

“What is informed consent when using AI,” she asks.

The changing nature of research: AI is posing challenges for research in universities.

Professor Kay said her colleagues at the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education had experimented with asking AI to generate fake research papers.

“It will generate the (research) data for you too. Not real data but plausible data, so it’s pretty frightening,” she said.

Two principles should be applied, she said. One is that AI should not write author academic papers. The second is that, where academic authors use AI, it should be acknowledged.

Rethinking AI education research: “I think we have an incredible opportunity to build these (AI) systems so we can learn more about how people learn,” Professor Kay said.

She also said university education researchers needed to work co-operatively with commercial developers of AI products in the education field.

VU vice-chancellor Adam Shoemaker told a staff town hall meeting last week that because of reduced income the university recorded a large net operating deficit of $73.2m last year.

The university’s full results won’t be known until its 2022 annual report is tabled in the Victorian parliament next month, but the deficit will amount to about 15 per cent of revenue.

“As expected, last year was a very tough one for us, as it was for many universities across Australia,” Professor Shoemaker told staff.

Also contributing to the deficit was the reduced value of the university’s investments – a problem affecting the 2022 results of all universities following the poor performance of sharemarkets last year.

“While we have no borrowings and our cash position remains strong, our operating expenditure exceeds revenue,” Professor Shoemaker said.

“It means we will have to work collectively and responsibly to return to surplus. We will examine all parts of the institution to do this.”

Victoria University’s poor result comes as many other universities are also reporting deficits in 2022. All Queensland public universities, except for the Univer­sity of the Sunshine Coast, have reported deficits for last year, with the University of Queensland the worst performer reporting a $311m deficit.

The University of Melbourne and Monash University also say they recorded deficits last year.

However, La Trobe Univer­sity will report a $37.5m surplus last year, thanks to a large $42m gift for autism research bequeathed by philanthropist Olga Tennison, who died in 2021.

La Trobe vice-chancellor John Dewar told staff on Monday that the university had “demonstrated a sound financial recovery from the profound financial effects of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

But Professor Dewar said if one-off items (including the autism gift) were removed the university was in deficit last year by $28m.

“This is exactly where we expected to be in 2022,” he said.

La Trobe made hundreds of staff redundant in 2020 and 2021 to contain costs after the pandemic hit, but this year it expects international student numbers to pick up, which will improve its financial position.

Professor Dewar said the university expected to break even this year, after one-off items were excluded.

He told staff on Monday that he was optimistic the university was “on a sustainable path to recovery and growth” but would “need to maintain our focus on containing costs and increasing revenue”.

Former director general of WA department of planning and public sector leader, Gail McGowan, will assume the position as Chancellor of Murdoch University on May 17.

The public service medal awardee said she was "delighted" to be the first woman to hold the position.

"Murdoch being known as a progressive university, the time is definitely right and probably overdue for a woman to hold the position of Chancellor," Ms McGowan said.

"I like people, I like connecting people, and I like connecting opportunities, so that's more important to me than necessarily being the 'first of'."

She said the upcoming state review into Western Australia's higher education sector will be the perfect opportunity to "reaffirm Murdoch's strengths."

"[It] will also contribute to an important conversation about how WA universities could best serve the community and build new "continuums of opportunity".

Ms McGowan was previously Western Australia's first Director-General of the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage.

She now chairs the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority and Director of Foundation Housing, and the commissioner of the Shire of Donnybrook Balingup.

In 2019, she was awarded the Public Service Medal for outstanding service to Western Australia before being named Leader of the Year in State or Federal Government at the Institute of Public Administration Awards in 2021.

Ms McGowan joined Murdoch as a mature student in 1987 when she enrolled in an arts degree before completing a postgraduate diploma in public policy.

In 2019, she received Murdoch Distinguished Alumni Award and sat on the University's Senate from April 2022.

Chancellor Gary Smith said Ms McGowan was the embodiment of Murdoch alumnus as she represents many of the university's foundational values.

"From a small country town, she was first in her family to attend university, and she enrolled at Murdoch as a mature student – the mother of three young children at the time," Mr Smith said.

"She is an example of the transformative power of education and the importance of providing inclusive, diverse and equitable environments for learning which encourages success and advances society."

“After so many years of teaching I still have to think about my lessons and refine my questions,” the senior mathematics lecturer told Campus Review. 

“I’m also very conscious that many of my students are doing maths not because they are drawn to the subject, but because it’s a compulsory requirement. 

“That means I have to work extra hard to make it motivating and exciting.”

The former highschool teacher and academic has taught maths to an estimated 20,000 first-year students at The University of Queensland over the past decade.

Most recently, she was named Australia’s 2023 University Teacher of the Year by federal Education Minister Jason Clare.

Poh describes her teaching style as interactive, taking real world details to help make complex mathematical concepts more relevant and engaging.

“If I was trying to explain something, say, the geometry of a honeycomb cell - i would bring in a physical model of a honeycomb cell,” she said. 

“In fact, just yesterday I showed my students how to model ‘love’ using differential equations. I call them Romeo and Juliet. It brought on some giggles.”

Fewer students in Australia are choosing to study higher level maths in Year 12, and fewer people are studying maths in university.

According to the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, just 9.2 per cent of school students studied higher maths in 2020 – down from 11.6 per cent in 2008. 

Women make up an estimated 37 per cent of enrolments in university STEM courses.

Milla, a first-year medicine student, said when she started university she was nervous to get back into studying after taking a gap-year.

But as soon as she sat in one of Poh’s classes, she said, she felt comfortable. 

“Coming across a teacher like Poh is so rare, but when you do, it’s life changing,” the 21-year-old told Campus Review. 

“I feel like women are really overlooked in mathematics and even STEM in general. 

“To have this role model who is so approachable and brilliant at what she does, it really is very encouraging because it makes you feel less alone and it makes you know that things are possible when people like her exist.”

Currently, Australia is experiencing a significant shortage of qualified of maths teachers and researchers, according to a 2022 nationwide review.

Staff losses in mathematical sciences have been further exacerbated by the ongoing effects of Covid-19, university restructures and staff cuts.

In 2018, maths was taught by out-of-field teachers in Australian high schools 40 per cent of the time, according to the Australian Teacher Workforce Data National Teacher Workforce Characteristics Report.

Poh said she wishes to encourage more of her students to pursue teaching maths as a career.

"I think the teacher is paramount to getting kids interested in maths and to improving numeracy in schools," she said.

"There is something really wonderful about teaching, about taking a concept, explaining it, asking questions.

"I feel very lucky to be doing something I love."

They are big questions. And two major review processes that just kicked off will be expected to provide answers before the new year is over. Mary O’Kane’s leadership of the Universities Accord process, and Margaret Sheil leading the review of the ARC, have these big questions to answer as we all collectively reimagine higher education.

The research funding landscape is particularly challenging with both public budgets, and cross-subsidisation from fee revenue, poorly placed to provide answers.  Increasingly the vision of the sector for its research eco-system is one with impact, engagement and commercialisation rising in importance. But there is widespread concern that it must be off off the back of secure and independent pipelines of basic research, re-aligned with new national research priorities.

It is a vision illustrated in the recent launch at UTS of the Australian Quantum Software Network of multiple universities and business partners. Part of the research funding future agenda undoubtedly involves finding new income streams with external partners increasingly seen as part of the eco-system not consumers of it.

Many universities are facing reduced numbers of domestic applicants as we get ready for 2023 admissions. This adds to commencing international student numbers that lag recoveries in the US and UK. We would all like to think these reduced domestic numbers are fully accounted for by cyclical effects. These arise with those finding the ease of employment distracting them from study intensity or signing up for degree education at all.

We might be masking effects within those cycles of the sort of longer-term moves away from full degree enrolment that are playing out in the US system at present, and in recent forecasts. Those trends and forecasts appear to be foreshadowing a reduction in the numbers of full degree applicants and a shift in its nature more towards online study reflecting changes in experiences and expectations in recent years.

What does appear self-evident, is the acceleration towards lifelong learning and a more fundamental rethinking of what job-readiness really means.  All universities are juggling significant faster-paced dynamics here. These are of changes in employer and learner expectations, accelerated changes in future of work needs, and a global reaction against the sector’s inability to deliver to under-represented groups.

A book published last week describes many of these dynamics as indicating the emergence of a new learning economy. This assumes a significantly growing demand for the lifelong educational well-being of global learners, but with growth focused outside of 3-year degrees. What new product and business model innovation will universities make in response?

Such a dynamic situation poses significant challenges for university leaders. These are times that call for compassion in university communities and cultural sensitivity to staff, tired from change. But these times need us all to undertake more change now than ever. It is a time when it is wise to seek to offer clarity more than certainty. It needs us to be deeply focussed on purpose and aligning staff and culture behind it.

We have seen some of the fastest rates of turnover in the senior leadership of Australian universities in the last 3 years.  It remains the most common route that new VC’s are appointed from outside of the institution. It is quite common for new leaders to completely revamp leadership teams, to reset 5-year strategies, and to focus at least as much on the culture they want to create, as the culture they inherit. The extent to which such an approach creates an environment and a climate fit for innovation and change is variable.

UTS is quite possibly unique in having had every new VC in its history appointed from within. The expression of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” comes to mind and the rise of UTS in various measures of the national system most recently in this year’s ARC Discovery results is self-evident. It is also trying to embrace growth in lifelong learning in its thinking.

The advantages of continuity in leadership from internal appointments are often most evident in the approach of building future strategy and culture from a well-understood standpoint of what it currently is.  It would be unusual for a Senior DVC who had been instrumental in developing a current strategy and setting the current culture to suddenly spring a very different new plan out of their back pocket. They would be unlikely to change their values and beliefs when making a move described as being from the home office to the foreign office.

Continuity can be highly advantageous for culture, during times of rapid change. People welcome knowing where they are heading and it being what they had signed up for. It brings its own challenge to then ensure new ideas are explored and that innovation becomes energised rather than stalled by it.

New blood appointments into the senior team are obviously key. Renewing the gene pool in the key support roles can bring about the same regeneration and innovative thinking as a more turbulent knocking down and starting again approach.

It is often argued that the sign of a great leader is the team of leaders they leave behind. Investing in the diversity, innovation and richness of teams is well served by a strong focus on culture and purpose. But it also requires the head of the foreign office to have a razor-sharp focus on the horizon, the external world, and be more sensitive than others to what is changing and how.

The insights from other global leaders from all parts of our learning economy and research eco-systems, and insights of what these others see next are of critical value in navigating change. They are sometimes difficult to see if you are buried in the bowels of your home institution or context.  It often requires outside help and can benefit from collaborative approaches between universities, their leaders and increasingly commonly, by external partnerships.

As the University Accord process and ARC Review play out in 2023, this ability to hold the home culture and strategy together while being innovative around the big questions that are being explored globally in the extremal environment, will be critical. It is a subject UTS VC Andrew Parfitt and I discussed together on a recent episode of the HEDx podcast that you can access here.

Emeritus Professor Martin Betts is co-founder of HEDx.

Said to be the first of its kind in Australia, the program will enable students to gain skills in entrepreneurship, business and commercialisation.

Flinders MBA director and co-lead of the new PhD-MBA, Carla Dias Wadewitz, said while PhD students are highly knowledgeable and confident in their field they can often lack business skills. 

“Graduates will finish with an intense knowledge of their scientific field, plus business, management, technology, Industry 4.0 and 5.0, sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurial skills,” Ms Dias Wadewitz said.

A recent survey from the Graduate Management Admission Council showed that in 2021, recruiters worldwide planned to hire MBA graduates as a priority, reaching 91 per cent of hires.

Data also revealed that business graduates earn 77% more than those with a Bachelor’s Degree.

“[It] will give students a ‘real edge’ when taking their research expertise into the job market,” she said.  

Flinders’ new PhD-MBA program will start in 2023 and will allow all PhD students, including international students, from all fields to add an accelerated MBA qualification to their postgraduate studies. 

The double degree will take four years to complete with students undertaking one MBA subject per year for three years before completing the remaining nine subjects in the final year. 

Program co-lead Professor Harald Janovjak said the MBA will help researchers get ready to tackle ‘real world’ problems in Australia and internationally.

“Many [researchers] have expressed the desire to draw skills from different disciplines, and to be ready for industry, not-for-profit organisations and government,” Pr Janovjak said.

“The story behind this new PhD-MBA is a story about listening to our next generation of researchers.”

Students will gain experience in leadership management, business strategy, finance, innovation, commercialisation, sustainability and entrepreneurship.

It will also incorporate multiple work placements to engage with research end users in an industry internship.

Adelaide chief engineer of Micro-X a high-tech X-ray imaging company Anthony Skeats has welcomed the announcement of the new double degree program.

Ms Skeats who frequently employs Flinders’ undergraduate and postgraduate students said the new PhD-MBA will be beneficial for companies as researchers will have a better business mindset.

“The opportunity to combine students’ scientific knowledge and business acumen will fast-track their careers and be invaluable to their future employers,” Mr Skeats said.