Course attracts physics stars into teaching

Professor Martin McCall talks with Times Higher Education

Times Higher Education p28

A national newspaper article reported last month that the UK faces a 'desperate shortage' of science and maths teachers and painted a picture of hundreds of thousands of school pupils being taught by untrained teachers because of a 'chronic' shortage of new recruits. On the same day, Imperial College London was congratulating two students who had become the first cohort to have completed a new course designed specifically to counter this problem. Carol Yang and Hugo Horlick are the inaugural graduates from the BSc physics with science education course, which Imperial says is 'the first degree of its kind in England and Wales'.

Under the programme, students study for a physics degree, which covers 90 per cent of Imperial's BSc physics programme and is fully accredited by the Institute of Physics. But they also gain qualified teacher status (QTS), allowing them to teach science at state-maintained and special schools in England and Wales without the need for a further postgraduate qualification.

The training in secondary education is provided by Imperial's teacher training partner, Canterbury Christ Church University... 'By offering it within the context of an undergraduate programme, we challenge students to think about the possibility of teaching perhaps earlier than they would otherwise have done,' said Martin McCall, professor of theoretical optics at Imperial and academic lead on the degree. 'If it's integrated within a professional qualification, it enhances the prospect of them actually taking that career path.