NEWS
What does it take to make a geophysicist?
Last autumn the British Geophys-
ical Association launched a review
of the state of geophysics educa-
tion in the UK with the sponsor-
ship of its parent learned
societies, the Royal Astronomical
Society and the Geological Soci-
ety. Aftab Khan, Peter Maguire
and Christine Thomas report on
the initial findings, presented at a
discussion meeting at the Geolog-
ical Society on 22 April by mem-
bers of the Review Committee
from universities, schools, the oil
industry, the shallow geophysics
community and the public sector.
The BGA President, Peter Maguire
from the University of Leicester, out-
lined the scope and background to
the review, which is being carried out
in parallel with the RAS’s own review
of undergraduate astronomy. Over
the past few decades geophysics has
emerged as an educational subject in
its own right, providing graduates
both for the exploration and man-
agement of the planet’s resources,
and the understanding and mitiga-
tion of natural hazards. He gave an
alarming statistic: despite the univer-
sity provision of excellent courses
and the growing employability of
graduates, the number of students
entering to read for first degrees in
the subject has fallen by more than
50% in the last 20 years, despite the
fact that the total number of students
entering universities has been rising.
This is only partly explained by falls
of 20% (mathematics) and 40%
(physics) in the number of students
doing A levels. Both of these subjects
are normal entry requirements for
BSc degrees in geophysics. In the
same period, the number of geo-
physics MSc courses in Earth science
departments in the country has
reduced from five to one.
Casting the net wide
The lead author of the review, Aftab
Khan, added that the rapidly declin-
ing situation called for a wide-rang-
ing review of all departments with
degrees in the subject and detailed
information on their experiences in
the last 10 years was sought from all
of these. In addition, short on-line
questionnaires were sent to: all
departments of geology, physics,
archaeology and engineering that
taught some aspects of the subject;
employers in the oil, mining, water
and environmental management
industries; and present and past
undergraduates. The students (40%
female) were generally of excellent
quality with an average A-level grade
of B in both physics and mathemat-
ics. Geography was the most popular
A&G • June 2005 • Vol. 46
Geophysics students found
their courses highly
educative, lively and
informative; they thoroughly
enjoyed university
third subject followed by geology
and chemistry. Most students
embarked on the subject because of
scientific curiosity, without a specific
career in mind at the start. The oil
industry was the most common
employer, followed by IT, private
companies, the public sector, the
environment, mining, teaching and
research. Without exception, the stu-
dents found their courses highly
educative, lively and informative;
they thoroughly enjoyed their time at
university. Their responses indicated
that the shortage of applicants is due
to the lack of awareness in schools.
They found out about geophysics in
their search for something exciting to
do. Their colleagues did other things
because of the lack of information,
the perceived difficulty of physics and
mathematics, and the demanding
entry requirements.
Catch them young
Stewart Bullen, who teaches science
at Hailey Hall School, described the
difficulties of getting children inter-
ested in science at a time when stan-
dards are falling. He has been
successful in generating interest
through the introduction of seismol-
ogy in schools. His is one of two
schools that have installed seismo-
graphs – with the aid of grants from
the Royal Society – which have
allowed them to link up with the
highly successful Incorporated
Research Institutes for Seismology
schools’ network in the USA. Their
recordings of the Boxing Day 2004
Sumatran earthquake responsible for
the tsunami were widely reported in
the press. Several European countries
have a similar collaborative pro-
gramme and are looking for new
partners. He emphasized the need for
workshops to educate teachers on the
merits of using Earth examples to
illustrate basic physics concepts.
Geophysics was an admirable way of
encouraging pupils to continue with
physical science and mathematics to
university level.
Bill Henry, the Processing Manager
of Compagnie Generale de Geo-
physique, one of the major geophysi-
cal contractors, gave an oil industry
perspective. Companies that
responded varied considerably in
size, from those employing a few geo-
physics graduates to those with hun-
dreds. The big multinationals recruit
worldwide so it was important to
continue producing high-quality
graduates in the UK. The taught MSc
was best known and most favoured,
but the BSc and PhD were also
favoured by many. MSci and MRes
degrees were still not yet well under-
stood. The skills most desired by
employers were practical and theo-
retical geophysics, IT and teamwork.
Other desirable skills included geo-
logical and mathematical knowledge,
data handling, project management,
interpersonal and field work. There
were concerns about the future sup-
ply of good geophysics graduates
from the UK.
Accreditation and charter status
John Reynolds, Managing Director
of Reynolds Geosciences Ltd and for-
mer university lecturer in geophysics,
gave a personal perspective from the
non-oil sector, including environmen-
tal, engineering, mining and archaeo-
logical applications, as the responses
from these areas were quite small. He
indicated that multiskilled people
were required by small companies
and that these were acquired only
after about five years from a first
degree in geophysics – which was the
ideal university education as it was
broadly based.
The small number of expert geo-
physicists in an area in which an
increasing number are required,
together with the lack of understand-
ing of the science by clients, leads to
the need for accreditation of geo-
physicists and the creation of an
accepted commercial “charter” qual-
ification. The universities had an
important role, not only in educating
a range of potential clients, but also
in developing the methodology that
in turn will create more job opportu-
nities. The base was fragile at present
and there was an urgent need for
more R&D to underpin this major
area of the science. There were
lessons to be learnt from the
increased awareness resulting from
programmes like Time Team.
Roger Clark, director of the sole
surviving MSc course based in an
Earth science department, providing
trained staff for industry at the Uni-
versity of Leeds, spoke about the UK
university provision of university edu-
cation. He re-emphasized the
favourable student comments about
their geophysics education and
bemoaned the lack of awareness in
schools. The UK output of MSc grad-
uates has dropped by 50% since
The small number of expert
geophysicists leads to the
need for accreditation of
geophysicists
1990, when the first of the five courses
closed. Each time a course closed, the
total number of students undertaking
such courses fell, the remaining ones
not taking up the reduction. The clo-
sure of the courses undoubtedly has
resulted in fewer geophysics MSc
graduates entering the job market.
This is cause of some anxiety in the
industry as these MSc courses pro-
vided a safety net for good physicists
who only found out about geophysics
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while doing physics degrees.
Russ Evans, the Head of Discipline
in Geophysics and Marine Geoscience
at the British Geological Survey
(BGS), is also the Managing Editor of
the Geophysical Journal Interna-
tional, the prime research journal in
the field outside the USA. He used the
BGS as a forward-looking case study
of a huge public sector organization
with more than 500 geoscientists and
a range of thematic programmes
requiring geophysicists for 3-D inves-
tigations and concepts including
imaging, visualization and GIS. He
identified flexibility, responsiveness,
problem solving, team working and
the ability to change and be re-edu-
cated as desirable features. BSc, MSc
and PhD graduates all have roles.
Again there were anxieties about the
future supply of good graduates.
Discussion
A wide-ranging discussion followed,
on topics including MSc course
reviews, the effect of the RAE on
graduate and undergraduate teach-
ing, increasing numeracy education
in school for scientific as well as busi-
ness careers, the need for representa-
tives from universities and industry
to liaise with school teachers, getting
more geophysics (including oceans
and atmospheres) into the schools’
curricula, workshops for schools,
promotion by the research councils,
the ambassador scheme, etc.
It was clear that there is an urgent
need to improve awareness in schools
in several ways beyond the means of
university and industry staff. The
need for a schools liaison officer to
coordinate these activities was identi-
fied. It was also clear that the decline
in the university provision at the BSc/
MSci and taught MSc level should be
arrested while efforts are being made
to improve the situation.
Work on the Review is still in
progress and it is expected that the
final report will be presented in the
late summer.
● Anyone with an interest in the sub-
ject who has not yet contributed
information or opinions is encour-
aged to do so to Prof. Khan at
mak@le.ac.uk.
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