08 December 2006
The demise of university science departments, coupled with a sharp decline in the number of school pupils learning languages, is causing alarm that the UK's competitiveness is at risk, as Stephen Court reports
The issue of vulnerable subjects in education is rising up the political agenda. Falling numbers of pupils taking modern languages have prompted Education Secretary Alan Johnson to set up an inquiry into the government's decision two years ago to scrap compulsory language classes for 14- to 16-year-olds.
And in response to the latest closure of a university science department, Johnson has told the sector to report any further plans to shut at-risk subjects.
Downturns in students taking strategically important and vulnerable subjects, such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem), as well as modern and some minority languages, are sensitive for the government.
In an increasingly globalised economy, Labour is keenly aware that UK school-leavers and graduates need foreign language skills. The growth of the world-wide problem of terrorism has recently pushed area studies and minority languages – particularly those related to the Middle East – into the political foreground. And ministers, from Prime Minister Tony Blair downwards, readily acknowledge that research and teaching in Stem subjects are vital to boost innovation and maintain economic competitiveness.
No wonder Johnson has become alarmed about the declining take-up of modern languages in schools. Between 2004 and 2005 the number of pupils who took French GCSE fell by 14.5% to 272,140, and for German by 13.7% to 105,288. This year, the number taking French dropped by 13.2% compared with last year, with those taking German down by 14.2%. There was also a small drop in pupils choosing GCSE Spanish.
Already there appears to be a knock-on effect in higher education, with the number of institutions offering courses involving French language study falling by 16% over the decade to 2007, according to recent analysis by the University and College Union.
In October, Johnson commissioned the distinguished educationalist Lord Dearing to review the languages policy and report back to the government before Christmas, with a final report next February.
Johnson said: 'We are committed to encouraging young people to embrace languages while recognising they should be offered flexibility in what they study to inspire them to continue learning. We are already investing heavily in the National Languages Strategy, and have introduced languages at primary schools to encourage more children to learn a foreign language. But we want to see what more can be done to boost language learning in all schools.'
Johnson is also firefighting in the area of Stem subjects. On November 20, the University of Reading decided to close its physics department. It argued that the department was making a sustained loss through its failure to attract enough students or research grants. Pleas from inside and outside the university to keep the department going were ultimately ignored, and Reading's governing body voted to phase the subject out by 2010.
News of the department's planned demise came awkwardly soon after Blair gave a speech in which he spoke of his 'passion for science'. He said: 'For Britain, science will be as important to our economic future as stability… science is in many ways the secret success story of the government.'
He highlighted the recent significant growth in public spending on science but did not mention the troubles of university physics.
But the closure at Reading forms part of a trend. Last year, a report by the Commons science and technology select committee noted that in the decade to 2001, more than 30% of university physics departments either merged or closed. Since then, departments at Newcastle, Keele and Exeter universities have bitten the dust.
The future is not rosy for the remaining 44 universities in the UK where single honours BSc degrees in physics are taught. Last month, the Institute of Physics said a further 12 departments were at risk of closure.
Research by the University and College Union has shown that in Northern Ireland and Northeast England there will only be one university providing single honours physics in 2007, and only two institutions doing so in eastern England – including elite Cambridge. If more departments close, some regions could lose all provision.
Physics is not the only science subject in trouble. The Royal Society of Chemistry has reported 17 university chemistry departments shutting or merging between 1996 and 2001. Since then, there have been high-profile closures at Queen Mary, London, King's College, London, as well as at Swansea and Exeter universities.
Earlier this year Sussex planned to close its highly rated chemistry department – where Nobel laureate Sir Harry Kroto worked until recently – but the university stepped back in the face of widespread protest.
Biology has been relatively buoyant, with the number of UK universities offering single honours degree courses rising from 64 to 70 in the past decade. But the number of single honours maths courses has dropped since 1998.
One of the problems cited by universities is the decline in student numbers. However, an analysis of full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students, using data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, shows a mixed picture.
Surprisingly, full-time student numbers in physics in the decade to 2004/05 barely fell at all. Chemistry students fell by 20% over the period. But in maths, student numbers rose by almost 40% to just over 20,000 in 2004/05.
There is also a mixed picture in the number of students starting full-time undergraduate degrees this autumn. Figures from mid-October from the university admissions body Ucas show that in physics almost 3,000 applicants had been accepted on to UK full-time undergraduate courses beginning in 2006, a fall of 0.1% on the previous year. So, despite the introduction of top-up tuition fees, there was barely any reduction in the number of physics students.
In chemistry, the number of full-time undergraduates increased by 3.7%, and there was a 2.7% rise in maths. Against expectations, full-time undergraduates starting biology degrees this autumn fell by nearly 12%.
Although student demand has fluctuated in recent years, only chemistry has shown a sustained fall in numbers, and the latest Ucas student figures are particularly positive for chemistry and maths.
A significant part of universities' difficulties in providing science lies with the way science teaching and research is funded. Since 2004, funding levels for laboratory-based science at university in England have been cut, leaving many 'big science' departments in deficit.
In research, departments graded below four (national and some international excellence) barely receive any recurrent income.
Last month Johnson said he expected institutions to give early notice to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of any departmental changes where strategic and vulnerable subjects were at risk. He added: 'I now expect the council to report to me, in confidence, whenever the closure of a department of a vulnerable strategic subject is being considered, setting out how provision can be transferred to other institutions to maintain capacity at national and regional level.'
But, given the jealously defended tradition in UK higher education of institutions being autonomous in what they teach and research, ministers know they have to tread carefully.
Caught between anxious politicians and prickly universities, the HEFCE has attempted to alleviate the situation. Working with organisations including the Royal Society for Chemistry and the Institute of Physics, for example, it is supporting initiatives to increase student demand for science subjects.
It set up a £4.5m programme in September to encourage the take-up of modern foreign languages in England. Almost £12m is going into boosting research capacity relating to the Arab world, China and Japan, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In total, around £160m is being spent on increasing demand and capacity in the threatened subject areas.
Meanwhile, the Commons' education and skills select committee is investigating whether the government should have a planning role in higher education, or allow the 'market' to operate. In the midst of last month's furore over Reading, HEFCE announced a further £75m to be spent over three years to support high-cost subjects, including chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, metallurgy and materials engineering.
Unfortunately, the extra funding, which starts in 2007/08 and will bring in an extra £1,000 per student a year, was too little too late for Reading, where the vice-chancellor calculated that the initiative would bring in only a further £180,000 a year.
One implication of the present income difficulties faced by universities with big science departments is that they will increase calls for the £3,000 cap on tuition fees to be lifted when it is reviewed in 2009.
Last year the Commons science and technology select committee said that if the university science closures continued unchecked, 'there is a very real possibility that the system will no longer be able to provide sufficient numbers of Stem graduates to meet the needs of the UK economy. Unless the government takes action now, it will have a crisis on its hands.'
For the time being with science, the government is playing a waiting game, hoping that extra funding and efforts to make strategic and vulnerable subjects more attractive at GCSE and A-level will be the answer.
But it is unlikely to be, while recurrent public spending on teaching and research mean unsustainable losses in science departments. And in school language provision, the outcome of Dearing's review might well mean a reversal of government policy.
Although Blair's New Labour has made education its top funding priority, that has not made everything plain sailing in the sector.
Stephen Court is senior research officer at the University and College Union
PFdec2006
