Monday, July 23, 2012

Not Enough Science Classes In The UK?

Brian Cox bemoans the shortage of sufficient science classes in the UK.

"The problem is that there are so many wanting to do science now that we don't have university places for them, and you can see that as evidenced by the entry grades they need to do science, which are going up and up.

"That's not an example of rising standards -- what it's really an example of is the fact that there are too many people chasing too few university places, in an area that we recognize as being nationally important."
He called up the UK government to put their money where their mouths are:

 "My challenge to government is, you've been saying for years you want more scientists and engineers in the economy -- what are you going to do about it?" he said.

"Although [science] looks expensive, we actually spend sod all on it. The entire science budget, depending on how you define it, is about five to five and a half billion pounds a year, on a government spend of 620 [billion pounds, or $968 billion).
I think there is a slight increase in enrollment in physics here in the US as well, but I am not aware of any shortage of classes that are preventing students from enrolling in the courses that they need.

Zz.

1 comment:

Steve W said...

I think they need to ask whether the jobs exist to actually justify increasing enrollment first. Around the world, science funding seems to be on the down slope.