Memorandum 22
Submission from the British Society for
Immunology
I am writing in my capacity as the education
secretary and Trustee of the British Society for Immunology. I,
together with the trustees and a significant proportion of the
membership would like to raise concerns regarding the proposed
HEFC cut relating to support for students who have equivalent
level qualifications (ELQs). We understand that if a person has
already got a degree at a particular level (eg 1st degree) they
will receive no further funding for taking courses at this level,
even if it is in order to retrain or update skills.
We and others are concerned that this is in
direct contradiction to the government's stated aims of promoting
lifelong learning, and keeping skills up to date.
More importantly, biomedical science, to name
one discipline is a subject that moves on so quickly that, skills
learnt 15-20 years ago are almost completely redundant now. It
is therefore common for students, including immunologists and
cell biologists, who have a bioscience degree from some years
ago to take level 3 courses in order to update their knowledge
and skills. They have no desire to undertake a whole degree, just
to keep their science current. It would appear that the fees for
such students will treble if the proposals are enacted; a powerful
disincentive.
The British Society for Immunology is concerned
about this policy because it will lead to progressive loss of
scientific currency. Moreover, it is often senior scientists who
are involved in teaching the next generation, so failure to maintain
currency has a knock-on effect. Major funding bodies including
the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council recognise
the scientific impact also of discipline hopping enabling physicists
to apply their skills to biological phenomena; this leads to innovative
and multidisciplinary research of the highest impact world wide
and often requires re-training.
We would therefore ask you to consider our concerns
about a strategy that seems to undermine the maintenance and development
of professional skills.
January 2008
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