Record $100 million university donation aims to back women like Anandikaa

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Anandikaa Ramesh is a migrant from Sri Lanka who studies twin titles at Sydney University. As a woman, she has challenged the chances of choosing the rare combination of engineering and software trade.

“In my programming tutorials and in class, women are usually in a minority,” said the 20 -year -old.

“For every 20 students, only four would be women.”

Gender disparity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is nothing new for Ramesh.

A young woman with a blue striped shirt sits on a laptop.

Anandikaa Ramesh hopes to follow a career in financial technology when he graduated. Fountain: SBS / Spencer Austad

‘Model to follow’ for women comes from various origins

For his final exams in 2022, Ramesh was part of a select group of girls studying advanced mathematics in Penrith Selective High School in Sydney’s West.

“I was very passionate about mathematics and it was also good. I really liked problem solving and I discovered that it was a logical thinker,” he said.

“So, for me, software engineering seems very logical and based on algorithms. I also passionate about trade, so I thought it was better to combine the two currents in the university.”

However, women have less than 37 percent of university Stem points. By forging his own way, Ramesh hopes to help change that

“I would really love to be a model to follow for young women and people from various origins and also girls where I live, in western Sydney,” he said.

A man with vessels and a blue jacket sits in an office, smiling at the camera.

Shane Griffin, associate vice president of Sydney Future Students of Sydney University, hopes to encourage more women to follow Stem courses. Fountain: SBS / Spencer Austad

It is an opinion shared by Shane Griffin, associated vice president of future Sydney students at Sydney University, which has spent almost two years developing a new Stem pipe of the university aimed at young women.

“It is a really exciting long -term project for us, and one that aims to make a substantial difference, and eventually adds 300 additional Stem graduates in the workforce,” he said.

The ambitious 20 -year program will create a “pipe” for high school girls in western Sydney in Stem education and careers.

“We hope to achieve a generational change, address diversity, skills and participation in Stem,” said Griffin.

A $ 100 million donation

The program has been possible thanks to a record donation of $ 100 million of the Khuda Family Foundation, the largest received by a University in NSW. It is compatible with the founder and migrant of Bangladesh Robin Khuda.

“Robin Khuda was an international student who recently sold his company Airtrunk for a large sum and was eager to return,” said Griffin.

A man in black suit is in a science laboratory, talking to three students.

The founder of the Robin Khuda (center) technology under discussion with the students Loretta Payne (left) Anandikaa Ramesh (center) and Samantha Jap (right). Fountain: Supplied / Michael Amendolia/ Sydney University

Last year, the Global Assets Manager Blackstone completed an Airtrunk acquisition of $ 24 billion, a specialist in the hyperscala data center in Asia Pacific and Japan. This marked the largest data center agreement worldwide and the largest transaction in Australia by 2024.

“After founding the company in 2016, Mr. Khuda found it difficult to hire women for technical and senior roles, increasing their awareness of the crucial need to diversify employee pipe,” said Griffin.

The Stem program aims to attract students to relevant courses in high school and then retain and support them through tertiary studies to follow Stem races.

The fight to close a ‘very large’ participation gap

Women still represent only 15 percent of all people working in Stem works, according to the 2024 Stem Equity Monitor of the Federal Government.

It is a reason why the program is welcome by Sally-Ann Williams, CEO of Innovation Hub Cicada Innovations and president of the recent path to diversity in the Stem review of the federal government.

“I absolutely praise Robin Khuda and Sydney University for adopting a very intentional approach to change the proportion of the number of women in engineering and computer science and Stem degrees,” he said.

“It’s very nice because that was one of the key recommendations in our review,” said Williams.

A woman with a white blazer stops with her hands together.

Sally-Ann Williams is a founder of Innovation Hub. Fountain: Supplied / Innovations of cicada

The review also requested the Government will establish a set of diversity in Stem programs together with efforts to make Australian workplaces safer, more diverse and inclusive.

“The key to this is how we govern academic and research institutes and our private sector companies to ensure that they are safe and free of harassment, harassment and misconduct,” he said.

“And if the directors do not demand supervision of what is happening in their workplaces and addressing them directly, then they are being negligent in their duties.”

Williams said that increasing diversity in government and private sectors is crucial to improve productivity results.

A woman with blond hair with tied hair is in front of the equipment inside a glass screen while holding a tablet.

The Stem program will encourage more women to assume engineering titles. Credit: Getty images

“In Australia, there is still a great gap for the participation of women and other people surrendered in engineering and computer science,” said Williams.

“However, it is essential that the Stem sector in Australia becomes more diverse, including workers from different gender and socio -economic, ethnic, regional or urban origins.

“The research shows that various teams create better results and a greater successful metric for government companies and agencies, because all points of view are considered.”

As of July of this year, the Stem program of the University of Sydney will begin to reach public and private secondary schools throughout the west of Sydney. When it is completely implemented, the program aims to reach 40,000 high school students.

The first pilot academics are expected to register at the university in 2027.