The white world of science

This story has been taken from the Daily Telegraph

The prospect of a black Marie Curie or Michael Faraday emerging in Britain appear extremely bleak, according to a report for the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Physics that concludes that physics, in particular, "is very much white (and male) dominated".

Prof Peter Elias and Dr Paul Jones of the University of Warwick, and Dr Sean McWhinnie and Royal Society of Chemistry call for more work to find out why ethnic minority groups do less well than the white population at university, and are less likely to choose postgraduate study in chemistry and physics, even when qualified to do so.

The progress of ethnic groups through chemistry and physics is likened to a "leaky pipeline". Physics in particular and, to a lesser extent, chemistry, are also male dominated. Many Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi teenagers "fall at the first hurdle - often before students have the opportunity to specialise in chemistry or physics. Consequently, numbers from these populations are much lower than might be expected, in relation to population size, at later stages of academic study."

White students are three times as likely to achieve an A-level in chemistry as black Caribbean ones. In physics, only Indian and Chinese students are more likely to achieve an A-level than whites. Chinese students are almost three times as likely to achieve an A-level in physics as white students. Black Caribbean students are only a sixth as likely to achieve an A-level in physics as their white counterparts.

The pipeline is leakiest for the black Caribbean school-leavers. "This group has the lowest overall survival rate in academic chemistry and physics, with only one student in 10,000 expected to undertake a doctorate degree in chemistry and fewer than one student in 10,000 expected to undertake a doctorate degree in physics."

Professor Peter Main of the Institute of Physics commented: "We believe that lack of ethnic diversity is mainly due to socio-economic factors and poor A-level combinations. The institute is piloting projects in schools with a mixed ethnic background to encourage a better take-up from under-represented minorities."

This story was published by the Daily Telegraph on 9 May 2006