EACH year many of Britain鈥檚 best students tuck their PhDs under their belts
and say goodbye to science. Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing
because a higher science degree is a valuable asset for lots of important jobs
outside research. But career choice usually has less to do with salary and much
more to do with job prospects.
I have corresponded with various senior academics about this. They tell me
that graduates know it will be difficult for them to get a job in science with
good prospects even after three or four years as postdocs. Their biggest worry
is ending up with a succession of temporary posts taking them into their late
thirties, by which time they may be deemed too old for specialist employment. It
can happen to the best people and universities are sometimes confronted with
difficult cases of people still on short-term contracts with only 10 years to
retirement.
In the mid-1990s the universities and major research sponsors signed a
concordat recommending contract researchers be given some of the benefits
enjoyed by permanent academic staff. A Research Careers Initiative (RCI) chaired
by Gareth Roberts, vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield, was set up to
monitor how well the concordat鈥檚 recommendations are being followed. The RCI is
due to report in the spring.
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Some academics are claiming that many of the improvements are only marginal.
Lord Salisbury, the science minister, should give the problem his utmost
attention when the report is published!
SHAME, it looks as if the government will not provide any special backing for
Britain鈥檚 participation in the European Southern Observatory. The ESO recently
completed the Very Large Telescope in Chile, an array of four 8-metre optical
telescopes that will be the most powerful optical telescope in the world.
Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, put a clear case for our involvement at a
meeting of the parliamentary committee in January. He emphasised that when
optical astronomy depended on 4-metre telescopes, Britain was the major
astronomical force in Europe with a share in the telescopes on the Canary
Islands and in the Anglo-Australian Telescope, which entitled British
Astronomers to 15 per cent of the world鈥檚 total large telescope time.
Now with the 8 and 10-metre telescopes ruling the sky, Britain has a quarter
share in the Gemini Project, which has two telescopes, one in the North and one
in the South. This leaves Britain with a mere 3 per cent of the time on the
world鈥檚 new-generation telescopes. Our astronomers now have less access than
their counterparts in major European countries. Three American universities each
have more large-telescope time than Britain will have. The remedy would be to
sign up with the ESO. The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
(PPARC) is negotiating with the ESO about our involvement. The trouble is that
we need to put 拢60 million up front, said Rees.
I raised the matter with Patricia Hewitt, the minister for small businesses
and e-commerce. Her reply was decidedly cool. She said that ministers at the
Department of Trade and Industry had not discussed Britain鈥檚 participation in
the project with ESO authorities or any participating countries. If we did join
in it would be funded by the science vote through PPARC鈥檚 budget. The council
exploratory discussions with ESO officials had not generated any recommendations
for ministers to consider, said Hewitt.
From both a scientific point of view, and a political perspective, I think we
are making a big mistake by not joining.