Letters - November 2007

Chemistry needs bologna solutions

From John Mellor and John Dyke

We refer to the article in September's issue, Bologna revisited  (Educ. Chem.,  2007,44 (5), 130), which asks whether or not it is important for the UK Higher Education system to align with the rest of Europe and adopt the Bologna three-cycle system. A point not noted is the position of chemistry as a discipline relative to other academic disciplines. Chemistry is unusual in training so many postgraduate students. It is therefore far more important for chemistry than for many other disciplines that Bologna leads to satisfactory solutions.  

At the moment about 40 per cent of the postgraduates in UK chemistry departments come from other EU countries. The percentage has been steadily rising and this trend seems certain to continue. Many chemists from mainland Europe, trained in the UK, choose to work in the UK, which provides enrichment of the UK's trained workforce. Students choose to come to the UK because, in part, they believe that standards are high, there are good opportunities and they want to improve their English. However now that it is possible to study in English in other EU countries, less students will come to the UK for language reasons alone.