Re: [kent-grads] Chemistry

[Tim Roll-Pickering <T.C.Roll-Pickering@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoting Brian Meadows <brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> I guess it took a while for the curse of having me as a student
> to get to UKC. I now have a B.Sc, M.Sc and Ph.D from three
> different universities, and all of them have since decided to
> stop teaching chemistry. UCW Aberystwyth was the first to bite
> the dust, Lancaster closed quite recently (a few four-year
> students were the last graduates in 2002) and now chemistry at
> Kent is in its death throes.

Hmm - my PhD uni, Queen Mary, University of London, is also now phasing out
Chemistry teaching to undergraduates, whilst nearby King's College London has
done so as well.

> It seems crazy to me. I suppose you can't blame the universities
> too much, if the financial straitjacket is impossible to resist
> then there's no doubt that chemistry is an expensive degree to
> teach, but even so... The Guardian (or at least its web site, all
> I can get over here) ran an article a couple of weeks ago in
> which they said that 29 chemistry courses had closed down, with
> more to follow.

QMUL's case was one of the more bizarre to explain - from recollection when the
bombshell hit twelve months ago the problems stemmed from a higher than usual
level of recruitment one year resulting in a substantial decrease in the
funding available per student, making it uneconomical to continue.

[Of course this overlooks the massive amount recently spent on a major "New
Chemistry" building, much of which was going to be taken up by Chemistry, and
which is now colloquially known as the "Not New Chemistry" building without
foreseeing this. Forward planinng...]

It seems ridiculous that so many departments across the country are crumbling at
the same time. From what I can see there doesn't appear to be a great deal of
strategic planning across universities, whilst the decline in school teaching
has reduced in places the numbers wanting to do the subject, resulting in many
facing a shortfall and financial problems.

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