On 7 Nov 08, at 15:43, Gillian Rendle (RCUK, Strategy Unit) wrote:
> Of course graduates are not necessarily lost if they go into other
> sectors, flow of skilled people is a benefit to the UK economy.
Many of those science and engineering graduates who start out in
professional life by working as contract researchers cannot remain in
their chosen field as there are insufficient opportunities for all of
them to establish academic careers. Research in state- and privately-
funded labs is a different matter, but still there are relatively few
openings in scientific research.
It's not about "forcing research abroad due to falling numbers of
qualified graduates". If, for example, one were to look at science
degrees as training for a life in research – which one shouldn't, for
the reason given by Gillian Rendle above – then there is an over-
supply of (PhD) graduates. Some will move on to other exciting things,
but there will be others who leave science reluctantly. I have known
much better physicists than me forced out as they failed to secure an
academic appointment or other permanent job in a science-related
field, and became too old and expensive for further short-term
contract positions.
Francis
--
Dr Francis Sedgemore
journalist and science writer
telephone: +44 (0)7840 191336
website: http://sedgemore.com
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