02 Aug 2007
Mathematics and computer sciences have the highest university dropout rate in the UK, with one in 10 undergraduates not continuing into a second year of study.
The figures are in stark contrast to medicine and dentistry – with the highest retention rate of 98 per cent – according to the latest official figures from the National Audit Office, published last week.
Maths and computer sciences have also suffered the biggest decline in first-year student intakes, dropping by a quarter since 2002.
And yet the IT industry continues to grow between five and eight times faster than other sectors, and needs 150,000 new entrants every year.
It is not only the student numbers that need to improve, and not only the IT sector that is affected. University curricula for technology-related subjects need reassessment if the UK is to continue to compete globally, says Carrie Hartnell, programme manager for trade group Intellect.
‘Science and technology subjects are not as rounded as they could be, which will lead to a lack of the diverse skills required to compete in innovation across all industries,’ said Hartnell.
Part of the challenge is that technology is still suffering from an image problem, says John Eary, a senior consultant at IT services company NCC Group.
‘Overall the report is disappointing, given all the efforts made in the past few years to improve the reputation of computing careers,’ he said.
Universities need to follow students’ progress and identify the areas where they need help, says NAO report author and senior analyst Sarah Perryman.
‘Targeted help with specific skills makes a big difference,’ she said.
My daughter has recently dropped out of a mathematics course at Bath, considered to be one of the very best universities for maths in the UK (Times Good University guide). My daughter went in with four A grades, maths, further maths, chem and biology. I thought she would sail through. She has stuck it out to the third year, having scraped through year one and two with low marks. Her problems have been mainly the absence of any one to explain concepts to her so that she could do her private study. The tutorials are all covered by students, who often lack the abilility to explain things adequately. She has often been told "we can't give you the answers you have to work it out for yourself." But what she was seeking was basic tuition. In the third year there are "problems classes" where 150 students sit in a lecture theatre with one lecturer! These, she found useless as she needed help. She has become extremely depressed and unable to work, and did not turn up for her January exams. She begged me to go and pick her up and bring her home, which I did because I was becoming concerned that she might be depressed. I have no idea how to approach the university or should I say how my daughter should, but I am concerned about my daughter's situation and the money she has wasted. I am disgusted with the university, they have not even noticed her non attendance and never question things like the fact that students do not hand in homework sheets that they cannot do.
Posted by: SANDRA CRAWFORD 21 Jan 2008
Given the continued depredations of outsourcing on IT careers, perhaps the undergraduate drop-outs saw the writing on the wall and opted not to waste their time studying for a career which would see them competing against lower-cost centres and lower-cost staff (aided by the British government's incomprehensible weakness in granting work permit visas on grounds of alleged market staff shortages when anyone over the age of 40 struggled to get a job interview...)
Posted by: Nigel 02 Aug 2007
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