Does chemistry have a maths problem?

Coloured numbers falling

Source: iStock

Endpoint: Colin Osborne has the last word

The higher education (HE) chemistry community and representatives of the chemical industry would indubitably say 'yes' and point to reports going back over a decade.1 The source of their concern may derive from the changes in the pattern of student choice at A-level over the past 50 years, from a combination of maths, higher maths, physics and chemistry to a much broader range of subjects. The increased numbers of students in HE also means there is a very different cohort studying the chemical sciences at degree-level than before. 

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