The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7188 p343
9 March 2002

Society summary

Backing for campaign to improve UK's scientific health

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Science Committee is backing the aims of a campaign to improve the United Kingdom's scientific health. The campaign is being run by Save British Science, a pressure group that promotes the interests of science to the Government, the civil service, politicians and their advisers, industry and the City.

At its meeting on 3 March, the Science Committee was addressed by the director of SBS, Dr Peter Cotgreave, who said that Britain's science base and science education were at risk. Recruitment and retention problems were affecting research in universities and in industry. At least one pharmaceutical company was recruiting researchers from mainland Europe to work in its research operation in Britain.

On science teaching, he said that the quality was falling. In British schools, 66 per cent of physics teaching was now done by teachers without a physics qualification.

The SBS was pressing for pay differentials to support scientists in academia. Was it right, for example, that history lecturers were paid the same as science lecturers? The Department for Education had accepted this argument.

During discussion, Dr Cotgreave was told that key areas of research in schools of pharmacy are at risk even though pharmacy has done well in the research assessment exercise — with nine of the 16 UK schools achieving scores of 5. One badly affected area is the design of drug delivery systems, which is attracting few PhD students.

One committee member made the point that expanding pharmacy education would have benefits beyond pharmacy, since the pharmacy degree provides a broad science education that can lead to a range of careers, including science teaching.