Slashdot Mirror
Science and Math Enrollments Reach New High In UK
ianare writes "There has been a continued increase in the number of students taking A-level science and maths subjects. Physics has been especially popular. A growing fascination with science and teacher support schemes seem to be improving the teaching of maths and physics in UK state schools. From the article: 'There is evidence that two teacher support schemes funded by the Department for Education and run by the Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Education and Industry are beginning to make a big difference.
The IOP runs a network in England designed to help science teachers teach physics, called the Stimulating Physics Network. The MEI has a similar scheme called the Further Mathematics Support Programme. There is compelling evidence that much of the rise in the numbers of A-level students comes from schools participating in the scheme.'"
It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it!
So the Government invests in education and this yields results.
Shocking!
I am very sucseptible to "let's have another drink"
I regret not doing more mathematics the first time round at A level, but there are problems to be addressed. I did turn my degree ("major", as Americans seem to call it) toward mathematics, and for preparatory work ended up doing another math A-level via private study, for which I received the top % in the country for that exam board. But all I really did was cram the study books published by the same company which produced the exams.
At a ceremony thing, following a long discussion with some of the staff at the board, I was immediately offered a trial position. I stupidly didn't take it. Well, I know at the time I was recovering from an illness which had just appeared and wasn't really thinking straight about what I could do long term. But I would like to have played at least some part in turning it more from a "learn for the test" thing into a "learn problem-solving" thing.
I think there's probably quite a simple explanation for this. The amount of debt that students in England and Wales will likely need to take on (barring rich parents) to pay for a degree has risen significantly from this year (not quite at US levels yet, but getting much closer). At the same time, the huge expansion in the numbers going to university has meant that the chances of a degree leading to graduate-level employment have fallen sharply.
The perception now is that if you want to go from university into a "good" job, then you need either a science degree, or an arts degree from one of the elite institutions (Oxford, Cambridge, or one of the other top 10 or so universities). A decade ago, studying a "silly" degree for three years could be justified, from the point of view of an 18 year old, on the basis that it meant you got three years of the student lifestyle. If you didn't get a graduate-level job at the end of it, then at least it hadn't cost you all that much. This has changed now (and in a funny way, this is probably a good thing).
Whether the conventional wisdom will actually prove correct for students starting undergraduate degrees in September this year, I don't know. I suspect a maths degree will always make you more employable than a media studies one, but there's no reason to suspect that any portion of the graduate jobs market is immune to over-saturation.
As tends to get pointed out quite frequently, what we lack in the UK (and have lacked for decades now) is a network of decent technical colleges to prepare people for skilled non-academic jobs.
Fear?
Would it be socialist to give this great a damn about our own public school students? Our local governments drain educational budgets for their own salaries' sakes. So irritating.
I do hope they can keep improving. Demand for skilled workers, especially in the USA, is still outstripping supply and this is a good first step in helping to rectify the situation.
(Yeah, I know that this report is from the UK and I wrote "especially in USA" but US companies can, will and already do import talent from outside of the USA.)
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
You provide a possible explanation - I am sure there's some truth in the belief that students are more discerning now it costs much more to study. However the IOP and others have provided some evidence for their argument so we should at least consider it. Definitely it would be interesting to hear if you've come across research into students' attitudes towards their choice of university courses.
There are many reasons which may have conflated to produce this result. I moved out of research 20 years ago and have been teaching physics in UK schools ever since, so I have seen various trends during that time.
Physics has always been perceived as hard (especially by girls) and considered geeky. Most of my students have either been out-and-out geeks or those aspiring to medicine/dentistry. A few have shifted into numerate careers (e.g. actuary, accountancy) and several into teaching.
Mostly pupils are interested in the sexier aspects - astrophysics or relativity or quantum theory, rather than mechanics or thermodynamics. Of course, at school level the really hard stuff doesn't kick in but it is still quite challenging for the vast majority of students.
A few years ago maths at A-level in the UK was made significantly easier (this is well-documented elsewhere) and took a lot of students who were considering doing physics as a "hard" option in order to go to medical school. To some extent this is still the case, but more people are doing physics as well. Why?
The courses feeding into A-level have been made easier - this gives people the [misleading] impression that they can cope with physics - and increases the course drop-out rate! Also, it is very valuable for entry on to competitive courses in good universities, but only if you get the top grades. Finally - and perhaps most importantly - it is seen as interesting, thanks to the influence of ambassadors such as Brian Cox (who has over 0.75 million followers on Twitter) and the well-reported recent events at CERN.
It will be fascinating to see how this develops - will the courses be "dumbed-down" (probably not, in the current political and economic climate). Will people realise that physicists are not necessarily directly employable? (I currently know two Ph.D.s who are still working as painters and decorators, several years on). Will the love affair with media science die away? (Again - it was last seen during the Moon landings and yours truly got sucked in as a boy...)
Intake for Science and Math Graduates Reach New Low In UK
Science and math is really important in our everyday lives. No wonder people should study this subject and focus for the more development and productive country.
I think this trend has more to do with Brian Cox than any government initiative.
Remember the joke about the 2 MP's?
English MP: "I am an Englishman!"
Scots MP: "Have you any ambition?"
It appears that the more different one appears and/or more different one lives from the surrounding population, the more ambition is required to overcome whatever discrimination exists or is perceived to exist. However, this fails in the case of sub-Saharan Africans and First Australians. Is it that for these groups their culture having become so closely bound to phenotype (race) that to criticize the former is to criticize the latter?
The issue is that every time these look in the mirror, despite what their paperwork says, they are reminded as to their origins. This sets up cognitive dissonance and subconscious conflict that have no place in employment in any sector with even a remote connection (pun not intended) to national security. The pork munching, ale-swilling football hooligans are not going to foul their own nests by engaging in acts of terrorism.
What is surprising to me though is that Computing classes are not in the list of "hard" subjects being taken up in increasing numbers. This year, computing is falling.
Maybe no-one wants a computing career, long hours, bad colleagues, constant re-learning crap that's itself obsoleted a couple of years later.
Lets hope the raspberry pi does something, or in a decade everything will be outsourced.
That's because they cut all of the horseshit degrees like coffee technology, dance with art history and Virginia Woolf studies.
Actually, modded down because you're a dick.
Initiatives are nice, but I suspect the students are drawn to physics in particular because they see billions on dollars/pounds being spend on the LHC and either thinks it's cool and want to understand whats really going on there, or they see the money. Others will not the rise in interest at the time of their "initiative" and say they caused it. Seems like a survey of the students could help clarify this.
The article does not provide enough information to interpret the numbers. However, it looks like, that a) the discussions on study fees in the UK fueled some movement in study fields, b) the non economics topics were at an all time low, and since we life in a financial crisis time, those topics declined in popularity, c) there could be a long running wave of a pork cycle.
My graduate degree was in a more applied field. We accepted undergraduate from core majors. Its pobably less likely to major in secondary field, then try to get into math or physics grad school.
It would have been nice if the title had been "Science and Maths ...." given it's a UK story. But I guess fighting against the rising tide of American English won't stop me from drowning.
It's all the Indian immigrants.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
As a physics teacher in a standard comprehensive school in the UK, I've seen a massive rise in students choosing physics in maths recently. A few years ago very few were choosing it as it was so much harder that 'travel and tourism' or sociology and got effectively the same qualification. The schools also promoted easier courses as it massively bumped up their pass figures. Whereas now, with the changing job climate, lots of them are realising that not all A-levels were created equally and their job prospects rise dramatically doing sciences and maths (they still aren't great but they are much, much, much better).
Since when was enrolment spelt with two L's? Hard to take this subject seriously with such a glaring spelling mistake...