A colleague was lamenting today about the dearth of freshmen at new student orientation who have any interest in chemistry or biochemistry. I am not talking about the entire university freshmen class. I am talking about the chemistry and biochemistry majors.
Yes, when asked to raise their hands if they were interested in a career in chemistry or biochemistry, none of the future majors aired an armpit. Digging deeper my colleague discovered that the students are not interested in science or a life of the mind. They indicated that what they are interested in is MONEY. They are only chemistry and biochemistry majors in order to gain access to pharmacy school, medical school, etc.
I don't blame them in this economic climate for being concerned about jobs and career security. The lesson here is one for our political and scientific leaders. If we believe that we will need more graduates in the sciences un order to remain competitive as an economy, we need to recognize that the current economics in our society don't send this message to our young scholars.
T.S. Hall
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Your last sentence sums up the RAND Corp. study on whether there is a shortage of scientific talent in the U.S. Degree economics has to be a hard topic for professors, since they make a living from the major they are in! So it looks like an obvious career path. But it's definitely not. With the internet now, students have easy access to information regarding the future of certain fields. Professors would be fighting against that flood of information. Not to mention many of the displaced adjuncts from industry and graduate students who are facing their prospects. All these things add up.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of trying to mix science degrees with other majors, it may attract a lot more students. That will also help keep people more scientifically literate, which I think is an important goal.