Witness the lack of jobs

All those sixth form girls who are hoping to become sexy pathologists like Amanda Burton in the BBC's drama series Silent Witness by studying forensic science at university should think again. That's the message of a report published last week, which says that the new courses will not lead to jobs in forensic science.

All those sixth form girls who are hoping to become sexy pathologists like Amanda Burton in the BBC's drama series Silent Witness by studying forensic science at university should think again. That's the message of a report published last week, which says that the new courses will not lead to jobs in forensic science.

"Our main concern is with the young people studying for these degrees," says Richard Smith of Semta, the skills council for science and engineering which produced the report. "They expect to get work in forensics but that is not going to happen."

The police seem to agree. Some of the forensic science degrees are little more than a collection of basic scientific principles combined with the telling of some anecdotes, says Clive Wolfendale, deputy chief constable of North Wales Police and chair of the forensic science strategy group at Semta. "If a young person is excited by the prospect of a career in this field, I would advise them strongly not to be seduced by some of the poorer-quality degrees on offer." The explosion in forensic science courses is doing everyone a disservice, he thinks. It is wasting young people's time, it is wasting parents' money and is demeaning to the police. "This is a product based on a television perception of what forensic science is about," he says. "The reality is that it is very labour-intensive, routine, time-consuming, dirty and unpleasant work."

Before 1990, there were no forensic science degrees in Britain. Now there are more than 50 degree programmes and a mind-boggling 350 course combinations. You can, for example, study forensic science and music at Keele University, forensic science and tourism studies at London South Bank University, or forensic science with early childhood studies at Canterbury Christ Church University College.

The reason for the explosion lies in university funding. Institutions receive money according to the students they recruit onto degree courses. Forensic science captures the imagination where a pure science subject like chemistry does not. So universities have been closing undergraduate programmes in chemistry and opening new courses in forensic science.

Kent University has done just that. Last academic year it registered its last group of students into undergraduate chemistry. In its place it has opened a programme in forensic science. "We were recruiting 20 or fewer chemistry students a year," says Dr Michael Went, who runs the forensic science degrees. "At the same time we are able to attract 60 recruits to forensic science, many of them extremely good students. "

This shift in the marketplace worries Semta. It believes that the United Kingdom's science base is thereby being eroded, and that economic growth will be threatened. And it is calling on the Government and the higher education agencies to take action.

According to last week's report, forensic science degrees "lack clarity and consistency". In addition they lack a Quality Assurance Agency benchmark which means it is difficult for employers to know what skills a graduate of forensic science should have. Some of the degrees contain very little chemistry and maths. Students learn how to lift fingerprints competently but don't have enough scientific knowledge to do very much more, the critics claim.

There is, however, another side to the story. The new courses have attracted a number of students, many of them young women, who might not otherwise have gone to university. According to the report, had forensic science not been available, about a third of students (32 per cent) would not have gone to university at all. So, the degrees are helping with the Government's cherished goal of widening participation.

In addition, graduates of the new degrees do get jobs, according to the academics who teach them. They may not be jobs in pure forensic science but they are jobs in related areas. The University of Central Lancashire runs one of the brand new forensic science courses that was started from scratch rather than coming out of a chemistry department and says its first student class has done well: of the 100 or so graduates in 2003, all except three got jobs or enrolled on a further course within six to nine months of graduation, according to Lee Chatfield, who runs the programme. One-fifth found work immediately in forensic science, mainly working as scenes of crime investigators and a few in forensic laboratories; one-fifth went on to other courses, many of them Masters degrees in forensic science; and the remainder found posts in related areas of work - with the police, Customs and Excise and Immigration, the military, and in private sector fraud and insurance companies.

That means the subject has a good record when it comes to graduate employment, he says, and can certainly hold its own with other disciplines. Moreover, Dr Chatfield takes issue with Semta's argument that there is not enough science in forensic science degrees. The University of Central Lancashire has talked to employers about its course and the feedback has been positive. "We have had a lot of employers saying 'We really like your graduates'," says Dr Chatfield. "One of the reasons is that they have good communication skills. But because of the Semta report, the University of Central Lancashire will be reviewing the amount of science in the course and looking at ways to expand it, he says.

Academics at other institutions, while defending their employment records, believe the Semta report has some truth to it. One of the problems is that the courses vary so much between universities, says Dr Michael Went, the course director at Kent. The report is quite right that the United Kingdom does not need the number of forensic scientists currently being pumped out by the universities. "We need 100 a year nationally and there are 1,000 coming out of the system."

Some employers are relatively open-minded about the new courses, contrary to the impression given by the report. AstraZeneca, one of the largest international pharmaceutical companies, will give interviews to applicants from these courses if they know the institution and approve of it. "If we don't, they will go to the bottom of the pile," says David Lathbury, the company's head of process chemistry.

Most of the forensic science courses have been introduced by the new universities (the former polytechnics), including the University of Central Lancashire, Lincoln, Anglia Polytechnic University and Staffordshire. Older universities tend to teach the subject at postgraduate level, including King's College London, which has a highly regarded Masters programme. According to Dr Barbara Daniel, who runs the MSc, some of the new university graduates fail to get onto her programme because their science is not good enough.

The Semta report questions the wisdom of top-up fees, the 50 per cent target for higher education and a funding mechanism which is seen as encouraging numbers of students rather than quality. It asks whether this is the most effective way to maintain good science and sustain economic growth. The Higher Education Funding Council (Hefce) replies that it does not believe there is a weakness in its funding method. "It is not part of our role to tell universities and colleges what they should and should not teach," said a spokesman.

Leaving aside the report, there are signs that the profession is trying to put its own house in order. The Forensic Science Society is talking about introducing an accreditation system that might force all universities to get their fundamental science in order. This might turn out to be the best answer to the problems highlighted in last week's report. In addition, Hefce says it is working to improve information for prospective students so they can make more informed choices about courses. That would include information about the jobs available, with salaries. If that happens, the Amanda Burton fantasies could fade away.

l.hodges@independent.co.uk