Students don’t appreciate what chemistry can do

After many years of well-publicised and significant increases in university chemistry applicants (from 18,590 applications in 2008 to 31,105 in 2015), there was a dip. And not just a small dip. There were over 4000 fewer applications to study chemistry in 2017, compared to 2015. Could this just be an effect of demographics? Andrew Parsons, professor of organic chemistry and admissions tutor at the University of York, offers his thoughts, and possible solutions.