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The skills our students gain are highly sought after across the jobs market
Your article reports on a study that claims there may be "too many science graduates for the labour market" (Job figures cast doubt on push for teenagers to study science, 8 September). The research propagates the notion that, unless graduates find work directly related to the content of their course, their degree's value is negated.
This is nonsense. A degree offers far more than mere subject knowledge. History graduates develop a broad range of analytical and literary skills, but what proportion use the knowledge gained during their degree in their daily working life? As you point out, "Ministers from all political parties and the Confederation of British Industry have argued the opposite for many years."
The University of Birmingham's research made its conclusions despite finding that more than half of all physics and chemistry graduates do find work directly related to the content of their university course, within just six months of graduation. Politicians and business leaders alike, rather than being deterred from encouraging a greater number of young people to study science, should offer these figures as further evidence that more scientists and engineers are needed.
You quote Emma Smith, Birmingham's professor of education, saying "the shortage thesis is wrong and there are no jobs waiting for all of them". But with high levels of graduate unemployment, the fact that a science degree is not only valued by a wide range of employers but is likely to lead to a career putting into action the exciting ideas encountered on the course is a cause for celebration, not concern.
The clamour for a greater number of graduates trained in science, technology, engineering and maths (the STEM subjects) is only partly due to the subject knowledge gained from such courses. The transferable skills are broadly applicable and highly valuable in the jobs marketplace: there are computing skills, a high level of sophistication in mathematics, analytical skills and problem-solving, and the ability to grasp and apply complex ideas.
It is these skills that lead to STEM graduates being found across the widest range of industrial sectors. There are the "rocket scientists" in the City, quantum physicists in management consultancy, and even a few scientists in government. We could do with many more.
Birmingham's researchers highlighted the expense of science and engineering courses – "among the most expensive for universities to run" – implying that they are a waste of public money if "only about half" their graduates find work requiring scientific knowledge.
But a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that taxpayers have had a very good return on their investment in student science. In income tax alone, graduate physicists are more valuable to the exchequer than those from so-called less expensive disciplines. In fact, they do far more than just return the level of public investment – and that's without accounting for the contribution their science makes to society.
Peter Main
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