Community News Archive
New Science Degree Caters for Future Challenges
IOP
5 September 2007
Today the Institute of Physics launched an innovative new degree course, Integrated Sciences. In an increasingly technological age, the science skills required to tackle global challenges of climate change and energy shortages are becoming broader and more interdisciplinary.
Integrated Sciences has been two years in the making. Consisting of a third physics, the rest of the curriculum reflects the expertise within the host institutions. The different versions of the degree will contain other related scientific disciplines such as chemistry as well as engineering and biology, but they will all provide students with a thorough grounding in the sciences.
Integrated Sciences is being launched at four universities (Leicester, Surrey, London South Bank and University of East Anglia) this September for the 2008 intake, following successful pilots at Leicester.
It is hoped that the course will appeal to students interested in science but not wanting to specialise in just one subject at degree level. Graduates of Integrated Sciences will find themselves well prepared to go on to more specialist studies including a four-year integrated masters degree in physics or chemistry.
Underpinning the course is the idea that new global challenges will increasingly require a scientifically literate workforce. Tackling climate change is one example and will require people with varied - in some cases, unspecified skills.
In addition, industries such as energy production, construction, entertainment and communications have all seen radical changes in what society expects from them. Businesses will only capitalise on emerging opportunities if they have staff with the skills necessary to innovate and adapt.
Rod Kenyon, Centrica Plc welcomed the launch of this innovative degree. “Employers will be attracted to graduates of Integrated Sciences as it will demonstrate their breadth of study and show a capability of working in fast changing environments”.
Peter Main, director of Education and Science at the Institute of Physics said:
“In the 21st century, there will be an increasing need to develop scientists with cross-disciplinary expertise. The new degrees are tailored to producing such graduates, while retaining the possibility of them specialising in the later years of their courses.
“Integrated Sciences also provides excellent training for an enormous range of careers after graduation, both within science and beyond, including specialist secondary or primary school teaching, interdisciplinary research or within the multitude of careers where a thorough grounding in a numerate and scientific discipline such as Integrated Sciences, is a huge benefit.”
Royal Society award winner, Jim Al-Khalili, professor of physics at Surrey University, is one of the architects of the new degree.
“It’s simple enough to say ‘climate change is a major issue’ but working out what skills you need to tackle it is more problematic. We can’t be too prescriptive about what’s needed, as we don’t yet know. A solid grounding in science has to be a good start.
“This isn’t just a random selection of modules from the three sciences lumped together. We have considered what a person would need in order to have a proper grounding in science and worked backwards. This will be an exciting but rigorous and intellectually challenging course.”
More information on the courses can be found at www.integratedsciences.org.uk
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