Department of Mathematics and Statistics Overview

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics currently has 14 full-time academic staff, 4 part time academic staff and 3 administration staff. Students in the Department are mainly studying towards Bachelor of Science degrees in Mathematical Science and Actuarial Science, both 3-year programmes.

In 1998, the Department started two double degree programmes, one in cooperation with the School of Computer Science and the other with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Bachelor of Science (Mathematics and Finance) was started in 1999 to fulfil a need for graduates with the mathematical knowledge to analyse trends and to predict possible outcomes in the financial area. At the same time, we also started two double degree programmes, one in association with the School of Economics and Finance and the other with the School of Marketing.

In 2001, we commenced the Bachelor of Science (Actuarial Science) degree course and this has proven to be very popular with local and overseas students. Curtin is currently seeking to have its course accredited by the Institute of Actuaries. Details of all the above programmes can be found from the students page on this website. The cutoff score for entry to the double degree programmes and the Actuarial Science programme are relatively high and students accepted into the courses generally have a TER score of 90 or over. The Department also provides service teaching in mathematics to many other schools, inside and outside the Division of Engineering and Science at Curtin University.

Staff in the Department have been very successful in attracting competitive research and equipment grants, which totalled $1.9 million over the last five years. Consultancy research projects over the same period was around $200,000. Research is a very important component of the Department's activities and this has resulted in a healthy number of PhD students, averaging between 25 to 30 annually over the last five years. A substantial number of these postgraduate students are from overseas. The Department has maintained good links with a number of overseas institutions. This year, we have run several workshops in Thailand and Indonesia. The academic exchanges are very important to the Department and we are always keen to forge new links. The Department's income from international students has steadily increased over the past years and now constitutes over 20% of the annual budget.