PhD decline
Imperial College is concerned by the recently reported decline in numbers of students choosing to stay on to complete PhDs in scientific subjects. With percentage drops of 2 per cent in mathematical sciences and 5 per cent in chemistry based areas, it may not seem like a huge plummet, but with the number of creative design PhDs tripling over the past decade and the amount of medical and legal doctorates almost doubling, there is reason for concern.
The main fear is the inevitable toll this will take on the quality of academic teaching. However, one third year physicist at Imperial claimed: `I haven't noticed there to be any inadequacies in the standard of teaching over the years, nor a lack of staff.' Physics is one of the most affected areas, with a 15 per cent drop in the number of PhD qualifiers.
Although currently Imperial is unaffected by the alleged 10 per cent fall in the number of science academics, it is still a pressing matter for the future. It has been argued that the fall in staff numbers in other institutions is a direct result of student demand. According to Professor Frank Berkshire, Director of Undergraduate Studies at IC Maths, financial issues such as growing student debt and funding act as major deterrents of studying to a higher level. He went on to inform Felix: "The Rector is trying to get a pool of funding, around £400 million over and above current levels of reserves to increase our post graduate activity across the college.' This certainly sounds promising in securing the future of postdoctorate study at our university at least.
