ICMI column. The Pipeline Project (Q549600)

Summary: In this issue, the ICMI column, authored by Bill Barton (President of the ICMI) and Louise Sheryn, concerns the Pipeline Project. The Pipeline Project is a study about issues associated with the supply and demand of mathematics students and personnel in educational institutions and the workplace. The study is coordinated by the ICMI at the request of its mother organisation, the International Mathematical Union (IMU). It also builds on, and is an extension of, the work of the Survey Team for ICME-11 on the topic of ``Recruitment, entrance and retention of students to university mathematical studies in different countries'', chaired by Derek Holton. The study aims at providing data for decision making in different countries as well as promoting better understanding of the situation internationally. At the moment, the following countries are participating in the study: Australia, UK, Finland, France, Korea, New Zealand, Portugal and the USA. Similar problems are addressed, mainly for European countries and with more detail, in the paper by \textit{M. Dieter} and \textit{G. Törner} published in [ibid. 77, 25--30 (2010; Zbl 1220.00012 or DE 05925143)].