Too Few or Perhaps Too Many STEM Graduates - Bob Birrell

Oct 15, 2026

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Opinion analyzing Australia’s STEM graduate pipeline and its medium-term employment outcomes, with particular emphasis on information technology. It argues that although STEM commencements have risen since 2009, job prospects for graduates remain weak and advocates have not shown convincing change. The document highlights intensified labour competition in IT from immigrant professionals and the outsourcing of computing work by Australian public and private organisations to offshore IT service firms.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Too few or perhaps too many STEM graduates

Advocacy for STEM training and employment outlook

IT labour market pressures and outsourcing

Policy rhetoric and HECS debt proposal

Domestic vs overseas undergraduate commencements (2009–2013)

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W OPINION Too few or perhaps too many STEM graduates Bob Birrell The Australian Population Research Institute Industry bodies, research and educational organisations have lobbied intensely for increased funding for training in the STEM disciplines. It is time to reassess this advocacy. Undergraduate commencements in STEM fields have increased strongly since 2009, yet the current employment prospects for these graduates are poor. Advocates have not made a convincing case that this situation will change. The outlook in the information technology (IT) fields is particularly concerning. Domestic graduates in IT face a labour market in which their numbers are being dwarfed by the influx of immigrant IT professionals, many of whom are employed by Indian IT service companies with branches in Australia. This is occurring at the same time as Australian public and private organisations are sending offshore much of their computing work through these same IT service companies. Keywords: STEM, IT, Australia There has been a recent crescendo of advocacy for more tertiary education training, especially in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Such training, it is said, is crucial for Australia’s future prosperity. For Australia’s Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb (Chief Scientist of Australia, 2015), it is not just the nation’s prosperity that is at stake but the jobs young people may miss out on if they do not take STEM courses. Chubb’s advocacy for more training in the STEM fields at the secondary school level is not at issue. More technological literacy, especially in information technology, will be an advantage in whatever field of work young people enter.The topic explored here is the medium term employment prospects of those encouraged to graduate in STEM fields. While all STEM fields are discussed, the main focus is on information technology (IT), where graduates are encountering job competition from large numbers of migrants. Chubb’s advocacy builds on a raft of reports from academic and research centres. One of the more impressive is the Australian Council of Learned Academies vol. 56, no. 2, 2014 (ACOLA, 2014) report on the role of science, research and technology in lifting Australian productivity. The Council argues that Australia’s prospects for knowledge intensive industries ‘will depend on adopting technological innovation to develop high-value products and services for a global market’(ACOLA, 2014, p. 13). If this is to occur, Australia will have to develop an innovative workforce,‘with STEM skills and knowledge crucial.’ The Council asserts that action is urgently needed, because,‘time is not on our side. In the past ten years, other countries have moved ahead of us (ACOLA, 2014, p. 21) .’ This campaign is having some success, at least at the level of political rhetoric.The Labor Opposition Leader in the Australian federal parliament declared during his 2015 budget reply speech that Labor would write off the HECS debt of 20,000 STEM students each year for five years (Hudson, 2015) . The Coalition Government is sensitive to this issue because of the collapse in commodity prices since 2011 and the resultant slow-down in resource investment. Too few or perhaps too many STEM graduates Bob Birrell 71 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Table 1: Domestic and Overseas Undergraduate Commencements by Broad Field of Study 2009–2013 | dom = domestic
OS = overseas | 2009 | | 2010 | | 2011 | | 2012 | | 2013 | | % diff 09–13 | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | dom. | OS | dom. | OS | dom. | OS | dom. | OS | dom. | OS | dom. | OS | | 01 Natural & Phys. Sci. | 19,885 | 3,326 | 22,783 | 3,230 | 24,460 | 3,388 | 27,869 | 3,144 | 29,019 | 3,363 | 46% | 1% | | 02 Info. Technology | 6,227 | 6,169 | 6,671 | 6,028 | 7,253 | 5,992 | 7,917 | 5,382 | 8,046 |

FAQs

What main issue does the opinion raise about STEM graduates in Australia?

It argues that STEM undergraduate completions have increased, yet current employment prospects are poor and advocates have not demonstrated that conditions will improve.

Why does the document say the IT outlook is especially concerning?

It describes a labour market where domestic IT graduates face competition from immigrant IT professionals and where Australian organisations increasingly outsource computing work through offshore IT service companies.

What evidence does the document use to support trends in STEM commencements?

It includes a table comparing domestic and overseas undergraduate commencements by broad field of study from 2009 to 2013, highlighting changes across fields such as information technology.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Ben