Why are less people taking higher edu phys?

[alias25]

why are the number of people taking physics at further and higher education decreasing? it was on the news. is there any particular reason, cause i think that's sad...

 

[Norman]

Alias25,

Do you have any reports to back up this statement? I am not sure that it is true (not trying to say that what you are saying is false, I truly don't know).
I don't have time to search through this stuff right now but for the US there is this information:
http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/emptrends.html

I know you are in the UK, so there may be a significant difference in the numbers between the UK and the US, but my hunch is that there will not be. Just a hunch.

Oh yeah- don't believe everything you hear on the news or read in the papers. Do a little research and come to your own conclusions- it will make things much more meaningfull and concrete when evaluating the truthfulness of things.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

[Lonewolf]

You might be interested in reading some statistics from 2001 compiled by the IoP for the UK http://policy.iop.org/upinew/Stats-FINAL.pdf.

 

[rho]

I think he was referring to this: http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article328266.ece

 

[Mulder]

I can't really think of a reason for the decline at the moment. The part about a quarter of teachers not having a degree is pretty alarming, and that'a only going to get worse for the next few years it seems :(

Maybe it's got something to do with too much stress in earlier years now being put on stupid things like Key Skills, and a general drift away from technical subjects like Physics in favour of vocational ones (or so I've heard)?

 

[Modey3]

The answer is real simple. Sadly, people are going into engineering or chemistry. There are more jobs for these professions. I'm a engineer and I'm realizing that I'm more of a physicist due to my insatiable curiosity. I realize that physicists don't do it for the money, but many engineers do engineering for the money.

Modey3

 

[z-component]

Engineer of what field, Modey?

 

[ranger]

but many engineers do engineering for the money.

I know when I get my job, I'll be doing it for the money ( of course I'm purposely omitting "I'm doing it for the love of it".) I'm making way too many sacrifices now > mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially. And for that, it better pay off in the long run.

 

[Modey3]

I'm a Materials Engineer z-component.

 

[alias25]

thanks....I had great physics teachers I guess I was lucky. that article says that there arn't many good qualified physics teachers in many schools.