UK: Reports reveal UK black spots in science and language degrees

[Harold F. Schiffman]

UCU: Reports reveal UK black spots in science and language degrees

Thursday, 08 Feb 2007 11:30

Parts of the UK cannot offer students, or potential students, courses in
key subject areas such as core sciences and modern languages, according to
two reports released today (Thursday) by the University and College Union
(UCU). The reports, Degrees of decline and Losing our tongues, catalogue
the decline in science and modern languages courses that has led to
regional black spots where there are little or no courses available. UCU
says today that such limited choice will force many students to give up on
their preferred university option, especially those who cannot afford to
move far from the parental home.

Degrees of decline reveals that 10 per cent of UK science and maths
courses have been axed in the last decade. There are now just 224 single
honours BSc courses in maths and science offered in the UK. Chemistry and
physics have been worse hit by the cuts and the report shows that in
Northern Ireland and north east England there is now only one institution
offering single honours physics.

The report shows a 31 per cent decline in chemistry courses and 14 per
cent decline in physics. In contrast there has actually been a nine per
cent rise in biology. Maths, however, has also been hit by closures with
an eight per cent decrease in degree courses.

Losing our tongues shows that there have been dramatic falls in the number
of universities offering modern languages. The number of higher education
institutions offering French has fallen by 15 per cent over the last
decade, institutions providing German have dropped by a quarter (25 per
cent) and institutions offering Italian have fallen by nine per cent.

Regional analysis of Losing our tongues reveals that the number of higher
education institutions in London providing undergraduate French has fallen
by 27 per cent, universities providing German have dropped by more than
half (58 per cent); and, according to university admissions body, UCAS,
there will not be any undergraduate provision of Italian in Northern
Ireland in 2007. UCU believes that the governments decision in 2004 to
make languages at GCSE non-compulsory could reduce still further the
number of institutions providing courses in these languages. Already the
number of pupils taking French and German at GCSE has dropped sharply.
Both reports say that students, or potential students, from poorer
backgrounds and ethnic minorities are likely to be hardest hit by the
cuts, as they are the most likely to seek a university close to home.

UCU joint general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: We simply cannot afford to
have areas of the country where local students do not have access to the
courses they want to study. The increasing cost of university means many
students are being forced to study closer to home. How have we allowed a
situation to develop where potential Nobel Prize winners are unable to
study in their field of expertise because they cannot afford to, or are
unable to, move to the other end of the country? The state of science and
modern language provision at university demonstrates the shameful gap
between rhetoric and reality in higher education policy. Since 1999
seventy science departments have been axed and there are now parts of the
country that offer very few specialist science degrees. We are facing a
potentially irreversible decline in the provision of science unless action
is taken now. The government offers many warm words about science and
innovation in this country, however in countries such as India and China
science parks are being put up, not pulled down.

The widespread closure of modern language courses is leading to students
facing restricted choices if they want to study languages. We need to be
encouraging future linguists, especially as future researchers and
teachers. Without those teachers we will witness a terminal decline in
students studying languages, which will damage our civil society and
impact on how we interact with the rest of the world.

Degrees of decline can be found at:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1954

Losing our tongues can be found at:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/g/3/ucu_losingourtongues_dec06_1.pdf

http://www.politics.co.uk/press-releases/education/higher-education/higher-education/ucu-reports-reveal-uk-black-spots-in-science-and-language-degrees-$465420.htm

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