'Darwinian' Funding and the Demise of Physics and Chemistry

摘要

Britain's scheme to favor the highest-scoring research teams—abetted by other changes in society—is decimating chemistry and physics departments CAMBRIDGE, U.K.—The word "university"— from the Latin universitas—suggests the whole, the world, or the universe. But is an institution still worthy of that moniker if it doesn't teach chemistry or physics? Universities in the United Kingdom seem to think so. Over the past decade, they have announced a steady stream of department closures, and now lessthan half of all U.K. universities offer undergraduate chemistry degrees. Physics has suffered a similar decline. "It's a disaster," says chemistry Nobelist Harry Kroto of the University of Sussex. Department closures became headline news late last yearwhen Exeter University announced plans to close its chemistry department, and Kroto threatened to hand back an honorary degree from the university. It was a surprising case particularly because Exeter's chemistry department was not failing: Almost all its work met a national standard of excellence, as judged by the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), a government scheme that grades university departments. And during the 2004-05 academic year, Exeter had seen a 21% rise in applications to study chemistry. Nevertheless, the university's senate voted in December to close the chemistry department and concentrate on a new school of biosciences and on strengths in physics and sports science.