Nokia concerned about the declining interest in science
By Stefan Constantinescu on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 1:30 PM PST In Financial/Corporate News
The lack of young people taking up scientific careers is a pan-European problem, according to a senior Nokia (NYSE: NOK) executive.Shortly after Nokia announced a collaboration between its research team and Cambridge University–with an initial focus on nanotechnology–Tapani Ryhanen, Nokia’s head of global nanotech research, told ZDNet UK that the same story could be told "in Germany or whatever leading EU country."
Last year, Intel shut down its own Cambridge labs, which had covered fields from optical systems to wireless networking. Intel’s European general manager, Gordon Graylish, subsequently complained that "there’s an almost deliberate streaming by the schools out of mathematics and sciences, based on the fact that those are harder subjects" and said the issue should be a major priority for the government.
Even Margaret Hodge, the U.K. minister of state for industry and regions, admitted in January that the science curriculum was "boring" and that "encouraging enough people to follow science subjects is an enormous challenge."
However, according to Ryhanen, the lack of uptake in scientific education is "not only a U.K. problem," but a more generic European issue.
Ryhanen pointed out that Cambridge has a reputation that "attracts the best researchers from whatever part of the world." He also suggested that the existence of a "whole ecosystem" of companies in the Cambridge area had proven attractive to Nokia in its choice of where to set up its new facility.
As a former science major I can tell you that the reason people are less interested in these fields today is due to the lack of engaging professors. I’ve been to three colleges so far and out of all my science classes I can only recall the names of two professors who left a huge impact on me.
Science is supposed to be fun. Memorizing text books, especially sentences in bold, is not.
Science is hard. Much harder than other subjects. That said, there is an inordinate amount of whining about “lack” of recruits to perform certain jobs. Really, there’s a lack or recruits willing to work for what companies would wish to pay them. Thus, many technology companies would like to create a glut of tech workers to drive down prices. IMHO, that won’t happen, because without the promise of making good wages, most people wouldn’t put themselves through the rigorous education and constant re-education that is a hallmark of science and especially technology.
My 2c.