听力文稿 ( Transcript ) (Channel 4) Gordon Brown promised thousands more science teachers in his budget, but with university science departments closing, where are they to come from?

We are always being told that science is the heart of Britain’s battle to stay competitive. Last week the Chancellor said his budget would boost science research and recruit more science teachers. But at the same time, science is losing ground on many campuses. Today the University of Sussex was grilled by a group of MPs concerned by its plans effectively to close its chemistry department. As our science correspondent Tom Clarke now reports, there are growing worries Gordon Brown’s moves are too little, too late.

Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics, the electric Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin who turned the world of man on its head. Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA. All British, and all giants in the pantheon of science and familiar to many of us. But would you stop if you saw this guy walking down the street? Probably not, but John Sulston decoded the human genome, and won the Nobel Prize in 2002. It’s an example, say modern day scientists, of how we are neglecting our former prowess in science, engineering and mathematics that made Britain great, and would ensure its prosperity in future. And this is another example. This top-flight chemistry department of the University of Sussex is threatened with closure. The university can’t afford to keep it.

“Here we have one of our major departments which is closing, which will, has got 350 applicants to do its chemistry courses this year. And you really have to say is this compatible with trying to make sure that you’ve got a capacity within our science base in order to train tomorrow’s teachers, and in order, for instance, to be able to train tomorrow’s researchers.”

It’s not everyday MPs scrutinized the financial decisions of one university. But Sussex is hot on the heels of another leading college. Last year, Exeter University announced its chemistry department would close. It’s the start, critics say, of a collapse of science (and ) higher education and chronic underfunding is to blame.

“What we need is injection of money now, to bring about a position where we don’t see a further deterioration, so that some areas of the country will be almost without chemistry and indeed physics and other subjects. We need injection now in order that the investment they are making longer term can bear fruit.

“In his latest budget, Gordon Brown promised an extra billion pounds of research and development over the next 3 years. It’s all part of a scheme to boost spending on science, maths, and engineering over the next decade. About time, say British scientists, they are tired of trailing behind their overseas colleagues. We spend 1.9 percent of national income on R&D, a figure that’s barely changed since Labour came to power. But that lags all our major rivals, France, Germany, the USA, and Japan, who devotes 3.1 percent of its economy to R&D. China is spending 1.3 percent of GDP, but that share has doubled in the last decade. So they are closing fast. And it’s not just money the university science departments are lacking. Numbers of students with A levels in science and maths have been falling for years. Again in his budget Gordon Brown promised to fix 3000 more science teachers. But they take time to train, their pupils even longer to make it through to university.

“The issue is what do we do now to stop more and more chemistry, physics, mathematics departments closing. If there is a hemorrhage there, then there won’t be the departments for these school students to go to in 5, 10 years’ time.”

If nothing changes, more universities will join Sussex and Exeter in emptying out their labs, leaving Britain’s future scientists fewer outlets for their potential.