The Science Council responded to the UK Digital Skills Taskforce, chaired by Maggie Philbin. The Taskforce was asked by Labour leader Ed Miliband to identify current and future digital skills gaps in the UK workforce. The Science Council’s response was informed by a valuable roundtable discussion held with Maggie Philbin in March and additional input from Members. The response can be viewed on the Science Council website. The Taskforce’s interim report in June 2014 will provide input into the political parties 2015 general election manifestoes with a final report published in June 2015 for the new Government.
The Science Council sponsored the Provider of the Year award at this year’s UK Life Science Skills Awards. The award was won by Wirral Metropolitan College who have been piloting Higher Apprenticeships at levels 4 and 5 in Chemical and biological science for industry.
Professor Dame Jean Thomas has become the new President of the Society of Biology, taking over from Dame Nancy Rothwell. Professor Thomas is Master of St Catharine’s College Cambridge, and is a past-President of the Biochemical Society. In honour of its departing President the Society of Biology has also launched the Nancy Rothwell Prize, a competition for young people aged 7 to 18 aiming to celebrate specimen drawing in schools and highlighting the link between science and art.
Professor Dorothy Miell has become the new President of the British Psychological Society, taking over from Dr Richard Mallows. Professor Miell is Vice Principal and Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh.
The Royal Society of Chemistry held its annual Science and the Assembly in Cardiff in May. This year’s theme was ‘Science Education in Wales’, with presentations and discussion from a wide range of speakers from schools and higher education institutions across Wales. Presentations and discussions across the day focused on how to increase the number of girls studying science in Welsh schools and how to tackle the shortage of qualified science teachers in Welsh schools. The Association for Science Education, Geological Society, Institute of Physics, and Society of Biology were among the organisations exhibiting at the event.
Schools and Education
A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the state of Scottish education says that “there is clear evidence of a persistent gap in attainment between pupils from the richest and poorest households in Scotland” and that policies must focus more explicitly on the educational achievement gap associated with high levels of deprivation. The report calls for the Scottish Government, universities, local authorities and schools to work collaboratively to reverse this trend. This includes adopting a more evidence-based approach to policy making through better collection of student attainment data, and identifying where successes have been achieved in closing the poverty-attainment gap which can potentially be implemented nationally.
Newly formed think tank, the Headteachers’ Roundtable has published an education manifesto for the 2015 general election. Among its proposals is an entitlement for teachers to enter a professional development programme leading to Qualified Teacher Status after two years and a Masters-level professional qualification after five years.
As part of its reforms to the GCSE syllabus “to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum” the Department for Education (DfE) has removed the requirement for schools in England and Wales to include American novels and poetry in the English Literature curriculum. Pupils will be required to learn at least one Shakespeare play, one 19th Century novel and one post-1914 British fiction novel. In addition schools will be given scope to teach other literary works. Education Secretary Michael Gove has said that all the reforms do is ask exam boards to broaden the books that young people study at GCSE.
UnIversities and Higher Education
The Russell Group has published figures stating that capital spending by its universities will create up to 100,000 new jobs over the next 4 years and generate £44 billion for the UK economy over the next 25 years. Russell Group universities will spend more than £9 billion in the 5 year period, 2011/12 to 2016/17 on capital investment projects, including £768 million on STEM research facilities and £406 million on 12 medical research facilities.
A report from University Alliance (UA) on social mobility within UK higher education has found that too much emphasis has hitherto been placed on young people’s access to a small number of universities, and little emphasis on future employment prospects. As a result careers guidance provision in higher education is “patchy at best and biased and uninformed at worst”, resulting in a “mismatch of aspiration and labour market opportunities”. University Alliance calls for universities to forge closer ties with a diverse range of employers to strengthen the links between higher education and labour market needs.
Russell Group reaction: “We do not accept the report’s conclusions…Russell Group universities are wholeheartedly committed to ensuring our doors are wide open to talented and able students form all backgrounds. Employers recognise the “value added” by Russell Group universities, which is why 11 of the top 30 universities in the world, as ranked by employers, are Russell Group universities”.
Office for Fair Access reaction: “As the report rightly argues, the way that public debate focuses on access to a very small number of universities can be unhelpful”
On the same topic, a report by former vice-chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University and Chartered Physicist, Professor Michael Brown for the CentreForum think tank argues that universities are not fully preparing students for life after graduation. It goes on to say that Government policy has focused too narrowly on encouraging universities to recruit more students from disadvantaged backgrounds rather than on the outcomes they achieve. Professor Brown calls for the Government to use a Social Mobility Graduate Index as an indicator of social mobility in HE.
Russell Group reaction: “We reject the findings and methodology of this report. It makes very strange assumptions about social mobility.”
Skills and Careers
A report for the Association of Colleges on the provision of careers guidance has called for young people to have access to more ‘hands-on’ experiences about career opportunities available to them. The report is the result of a series of workshops with students, teachers, parents, colleges and careers advisers exploring the role of careers advice. It argues that careers guidance should inform young people “about how roles fit within industries”, particularly career opportunities in their local economy, and focus on both short-term and long-term opportunities. The workshops found that young people “need to understand the immediate steps they can take towards a potential career path and should have the opportunity to hear from role models not much older than themselves”.
The Government has responded to the House of Commons Science & Technology Select Committee report on women in scientific careers, published in February. The Government said that it would welcome a review by learned societies of the reasons why women leave academic STEM careers, a recommendation made in the Committee’s report.
The Campaign for Science & Engineering published a report on improving diversity in STEM calling for Government, and in particular the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and DfE to make diversity a central consideration in the development and implementation of all its STEM policies. The report calls for Government to provide more support to schools’ and teachers’ awareness of science careers, and develop initiatives that better engage with parents and families, particularly those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. Its recommendations cite the Science Council’s own recommendation to the Richard Review of Apprenticeships that the new system for apprenticeships should link to registration standards and ensure “transparency and accountability of organisations involved in the system and clarity on the routes for employer involvement.”
The Government has launched a new campaign, 'Your Life' which seeks to tap in to the business ambitions of young people, showing them that studying mathematics, physics, technology and engineering can support those ambitions. The campaign will particularly target girls and women. Employers and stakeholders across engineering have pledged to take action including Science Council membe rs', the BCS, The Chartered Institute for Institute for IT, the Physics and the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
A report from Opportunity Now calls for businesses to ensure that gender diversity in their workforce becomes a high-level priority. The report finds that a gap remains between organisations’ policies on gender equality and the actual experience of women aged 28-40 in work. While many employers have strived to achieve diversity, policies have often been “off-target”. The report also conceives six profiles to highlight the point that women will have different experiences and ambitions throughout all stages of their career.
A commentary piece by Jonathan Todd, the Chief Economist of the Demos think tank on expanding higher apprenticeships, calls on the Government to ensure that the new Trailblazer scheme is fit for purpose. Todd says that while they are a step in the fight direction, the sector focus on Trailblazers may “inadvertently result in more apprenticeship qualifications being developed than is optimal”. If Trailblazers can ensure occupation standards for apprenticeships rather than multiple cross-cutting standards for occupations that have some presence in a number of sectors, Todd says, it will encourage more employers to participate.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
The Royal Society will be holding its Diversity Day on Tuesday 17th June 2014. The free to attend conference will take place between 10am and 4pm and will bring together individuals from across the scientific community and those active in equality and diversity to discuss key issues and barriers to improving the diversity of the scientific workforce, and to share best practice and current initiatives. In the evening Professor Joanna Haigh FRS, President of the Royal Meteorological Society will be in discussion with Alok Jha, science correspondent at ITV News.
The STEM Disability Transition Group will be hosting a free to attend conference on 11th July 2014 at the University of Greenwich. The conference, titled ‘What’s so special about STEM?’ intends to provide attendees an improved understanding of the particular obstacles faced by disabled STEM students and graduates. Professor Les Ebdon, Director of the Office for Fair Access will deliver the keynote speech.
The Higher Education Academy will be running a free to attend seminar on Tuesday 24th June 2014 from 12pm to 1pm in York Science Park. The seminar, titled ‘Embedding mental wellbeing in the curriculum: maximising success in higher education’, will provide attendees an opportunity to explore principles for designing and teaching the curriculum that take account of the links between wellbeing and learning, explore examples of good practice for embedding mental wellbeing in the curriculum, and provide an opportunity for participants to identify ways they can bring about change to their courses and programmes. The seminar is also available to attend virtually.
The Fourth European Gender Summit (GS4EU) will be taking place in Brussels from 30th June to 1st July 2014. The event will focus on gender dimensions in the Horizon 2020 programme, and will include presentations and discussions on the gender and equality factors that influence research design and funding. The event will aim to design a set of common standards that integrate gender into Horizon 2020 research and innovation practices.
Science and Industry
The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee published its report on the Government’s Horizon Scanning programme, recommending that the Government Office for Science be relocated to the Cabinet Office so that horizon scanning activities become more integrated into cross-departmental decision making. The Committee also expressed concern that the new programme offered no opportunity for external views to be heard. It recommended that the National Academies be included on the Horizon Scanning Oversight Group and “membership of the communities of interest be immediately opened up to external organisations, including academic groups, learned societies and industry”.
Other News
2014 John Maddox Prize for standing up for science
Nominations are now open for this year’s John Maddox Prize. The prize awards an individual who has promoted sound science and evidence on a matter of national interest, with an emphasis on those who have faced hostility difficulty in doing so. Nominations can be for any kind of public activity, including all forms of writing, speaking and public engagement, in any of the following areas: addressing misleading information about scientific or medical issues in any forum; Bringing sound evidence to bear in a public or policy debate; helping people to make sense of a complex scientific issue. The Prize is a joint initiative by Nature and Sense about Science, and supported by the Kohn Foundation. In addition to the prize money of £2,000 an announcement will be published in Nature. The deadline for nominations is midnight on 20th August 2013 and the winner will be announced in on 10th October 2014. For further information visit the Sense about Science website.
Cambridge Assessment will be hosting a talk by Professor Sir John Holman on the assessment of practical work in A-level and GCSE science. The talk is taking place in Cambridge on Tuesday 17th June 2014. Sir John Holman was named by the Science Council as one of the UK’s 100 leading practising scientists in 2014.
Imperial College London is seeking short summer work placements for their MSc Science Communication students. Please contact Gareth Mitchell for further information.
