Science Degrees Threatened - MPs

Thu, May 04, 2006

Source: BBC

Students have held protests against the chemistry closure plan.

Students have held protests against the chemistry closure plan.
 
The future of university science courses is under threat, with the authorities lacking the "teeth" to save them, a report by MPs says.
The science and technology select committee called Sussex University's proposal to close its highly rated chemistry department "disappointing".

Until stronger national guidelines were in place, further such closures were "inevitable", it added.

A Sussex spokesman said the university had not yet made a final decision.

'Lack of support'

The MPs' report said: "The declining popularity of chemistry at undergraduate level is without doubt a national concern."

The government had failed to give the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) the "powers or political support necessary to enable it to fulfil its function effectively", it added.

It had encouraged a "market", within which vice-chancellors were very powerful, the report said.

  It is disappointing that the university has taken such a negative view of the sustainability of this achievement, rather than seeking to build on this success

Science and technology select committee

This had left Hefce with neither "the teeth, the tools, nor the will" to do its job effectively.

The report said: "It is extremely unfortunate that in an area of higher education so crucial to the nation's future industrial strength there is now an acknowledged policy failure."

Treasury figures show the number of students graduating in chemistry fell by 7% between 2003 and 2005.

However, applications to Sussex in the subject increased by 45% in 2004, 27% last year and 40% this year.

'Negative view'

But academics told MPs there was no guarantee of the chemistry department keeping its 5 rating - the second-highest possible - and that it had lost some top-class researchers to rivals.

The report says: "It is disappointing that the university has taken such a negative view of the sustainability of this achievement, rather than seeking to build on this success."

Sussex wants to replace its chemistry department with one of "chemical biology".

But the MPs said core disciplines must be the foundation of sciences, adding that the plan was "highly dubious".

The report demands that universities should inform it of proposed department closures at least 18 months in advance.

'Open discussions'

A Sussex spokesman said the university accepted "the criticism that we should have taken Hefce into our confidence about our plans sooner".

However, there had been open discussions and it had "not in fact made final decisions" about chemistry, he insisted.

The plans were to close the department in summer 2007, which gave Hefce 16 months' notice, the spokesman added.

Exeter University, King's College London, Queen Mary London and Swansea University have all shut their chemistry departments, but each of these had a lower research rating - and funding - than Sussex's.

A spokesman for Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said: "Universities are autonomous institutions, and a vice-chancellor's job is to make the right decisions to enable his or her institution to deliver excellence - and these can sometimes be tough decisions."

Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said: "The government has no current plans to interfere in institutional decisions about where subjects should be provided but we do want universities to work in partnership with each other and Hefce at an early stage to help manage change smoothly." 

BBC