Maaike Wienk,a policy officer at the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute,said enrolments in maths had not bounced back after sharply declining from 2000 and stabilising in 2010.
"We have basically bottomed out,"she said."But because it's beensuch a long term decline,I think people forget how it used to be."
In 2000,94 per cent of HSC students took a maths course. That dropped to 78 per cent of students in 2005,75 per cent in 2010 and is 76 per cent this year.
That general decline has been attributed to several factors,from a lack of incentives to study maths to students'tendency tochoose easier subjects in search of ahigher ATAR.
"The thing is,in that same period the students starting a university degree has gone up quite considerably,"Dr Wienk said. The government'shigher education reforms are also pushing students into STEM degrees that involve statistics,quantitative data and science methods.
"We don't see students take up those subjects in high school,"she said."There's an increasing gap between the way they are prepared for these subjects in university and what they do in high school.
"It's really important that students in high school get the right information about the importance of studying maths."
Extension 2 student Samuel Gresham from Newington College said students could be deterred by the stigma around high-level maths,and that shifting towards a"do as well as you can"attitude had helped him persevere with the course.
"If people were more open to pushing their own boundaries,rather than[aiming] for certain marks or a rank in your school,doing harder subjects becomes a lot more rewarding,"he said.
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"Taking extension 1 in year 11 was a bit of a leap for me. I feel a great sense of satisfaction in the fact I've been able to do this level of maths."
In a report co-authored with Australia's Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel last month,Dr Wienk called for universities to reinstate prerequisites for courses that involved maths,as one way of signalling its importance to students and ensuring they were prepared for tertiary study.
"In the current university landscape,it's probably not feasible for every university to have strong prerequisites. But for us,[it is] the preferred and best way,"she said.
NSW universities have fewer mathematics prerequisites than other states. According to the report,maths is not required for 94 per cent of economics and commerce courses,92 per cent of health and medical sciences courses,96 per cent of science and computer science courses,or 91 per cent of engineering courses.
In other states,the majority of engineering courses require maths,as do up to half of science courses.
The University of Sydney changed its policies to reintroduce mathematics prerequisites for a number of courses from 2019,and now has the most courses in NSW with such requirements.
A Sydney University spokeswoman said there had been"no negative impact[on] enrolments",and a small decline in failure rates for affected students."While further analysis is needed ... we're delighted by this outcome,"she said.
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Professor Pauline Ross,associate dean of education in the university's science faculty,said maths prerequisites conveyed the standards expected of students.
"Fundamentally,we live in a big data world,"she said."We need all students at all levels improving their maths ability,and our focus is supporting our students to succeed and to reach their full potential.
"The more you practice the better at it you become. And as someone's confidence grows,their ability grows with it."
HSC students will sit their mathematics exams this week.