Government response
INTRODUCTION
The Government, HEFCE and RCUK welcome the Committee's
Report on Strategic Science Provision in English Universities.
As the Committee notes, this is a complex subject, but one where
there is a broad consensus on many of the key issues. We are pleased
that the Committee's diagnosis reflects our own in many respects.
The main work of implementing policy on HE [higher
education] science falls to the HE Funding Bodies (HEFCE in England)
and to the Research Councils. Both RCUK and HEFCE have been active
in assessing the health of "strategic disciplines" and
advising on the conditions that might necessitate intervention
and the form that intervention should take. The Committee will
be aware that the Secretary of State for Education and Skills
has recently received advice from HEFCE on the provision of strategic
subjects (including, but not limited to, science subjects): the
main conclusions of this advice are reported in this response
and the Government will respond in due course.
We note the Committee's concerns about the funding
of strategic subject provision, and especially about the distribution
of funding between departments. The Government has made a substantial
and sustained investment in the HE research base in recent years
and is committed to continuing to do so. We are not and should
not be its sole support, however, and another element of our strategy
has been to increase the capacity of HE institutions to draw in
funding from sources other than Government.
We welcome especially the Committee's recognition
that student demand is fundamental to addressing not just the
issue of departmental closures, but the underlying issue of maintaining
a good supply of talent to all parts of our science base. Such
a supply is indeed key to realising our ambitions for UK science,
as outlined in the Science and Innovation Framework.
However, it should be noted that the overall number
of young people studying for Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM) degrees has been rising steadily. Today
there are 120,000 more young people studying for STEM degrees
than in 1997/98 and the percentage of the total number of students
taking STEM degrees has gone up from 38% to 41%. These include
large increases in those studying the biological sciences but
also a 78% increase in those studying computer sciences and a
welcome 38% increase in those studying mathematics. The physical
sciences have remained fairly constant at 50,000 and the only
area where there has been a fall in the number of students studying
is engineering and technology degrees, which has gone down from
87,000 in 1997/98 to 80,000 in 1999/2000 though this figure seems
to have stabilised at this level. The number of doctorates awarded
in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics
has also risen from 7,850 in 1997/8 to 9,865 in 2002/03, a 26%
increase.
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