§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what estimate he has made of the number and percentage of students who have gained postgraduate qualifications in nuclear physics who then took up employment abroad; and if he will make a statement; [63386]
(2) what steps he has taken to encourage students to take up postgraduate courses in nuclear physics. [63387]
§ Mr. BattleI understand that data are not available at a sufficient level of subject detail to provide an answer for all postgraduates. However, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has provided the following information based on an evaluation, last year, of the research students supported by the Council and by the former Science and Engineering Research Council and whose funding expired in the period between October 1991 and 1996. 53 students are known to have obtained PhDs in nuclear physics; of those 9 per cent. took posts overseas in their first jobs. No data are currently available on the number who remain abroad, but a further recent career path study of former Research Council students across a wide range of subject areas found that only 4 per cent. worked overseas in their first job and in their latest job, some ten years on.
701WThe EPSRC allocates studentships to university departments based on the level of EPSRC-funded research activity on a programme by programme basis. There is no specific allocation based on funding of nuclear physics. Heads of Department have discretion to distribute their quota of studentships in an appropriate manner provided the relevant projects fall within the research remit of the EPSRC.
The Physics programme of EPSRC allocated 171 research studentships and collaborative (CASE) awards, and 39 advanced course studentships in 1997. Two of the advanced courses are in the area of nuclear physics, and the programme provides these two courses with 13 studentships. (Data are not readily available on the pass rate and employment destinations of the students on these two courses, but the career path study indicated that 99 per cent. of Research Council advanced course students gained their qualification).
The EPSRC has recently provided funding for a new Integrated Graduate Development Course in nuclear physics at the University of Liverpool, entitled "Radiometrics applied to Decommissioning and Radioactive Waste".