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Leading article: Hefce report has right chemistry

Thursday 30 June 2005 00:00 BST
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Hefce is right to keep intervention to a minimum and to set its face against a Soviet-style central planning model. We do not need a blanket approach to the problem of a decline in some science subjects, nor should Hefce try to second guess the market. As Sir Howard Newby, Hefce's chief executive, says: "We must uphold the right of managers to manage and not interfere with their strategic direction."

In the case of Exeter, Smith was faced with a chemistry department that was good but not exceptional. Student demand was relatively buoyant, so the issue was not that students did not want to study the subject but that it was shrewd to invest scarce resources in a field in which Exeter could really make its mark. Smith explained that, if it carried on as before, it risked a mediocre future.

Students wanting to study chemistry in the South West can go to Bath or Bristol. But aspiring chemists seeking a local option in Exeter will no longer have a university on their doorstep. Hefce is proposing that students who need to study locally should be able to do so through an Open University degree. That solution is symptomatic of its approach: work out what the problem is and seek local answers. So, a lack of local courses could be solved by the OU and a lack of students could be solved by local employers providing bursaries to keep courses alive. There is no point spending taxpayers money on these subjects unless students want to study them.

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