CGHE Webinar 348

The Swing to Science: Retrospects and Prospects

Date: Tuesday, 18 April 2023 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: Zoom webinar, registration required
Speaker(s):
  • Peter Mandler, University of Cambridge

Event Materials

This event is now archived and we are pleased to provide the following event media and assets, along with the original event overview.

There has been an under-discussed ‘swing to science’ in student choices at school and university in the UK since the late 2000s. Attempts to explain subject choice tend to focus on periods when students are seen to be making the ‘wrong’ choices – i.e. swings away​ from science. So the swing to science in the last 15 years has received less attention. This talk looks at the reasons for the earlier swing away​ from science between the 1960s and the 2000s, and considers which factors no longer operate or have gone into reverse, and whether there are new factors in play. Even when the swing began is hard to determine. It calls for a deeper dive into student motivation than can be provided by quantitative exercises based on either investment or Bourdieusian models. What lies behind reported motivations such as ‘interest’, ‘enjoyment’, ‘utility’ or ‘career’? How do these motivations differ in meaning and intensity between people of different social classes and genders? Can we parse the swing as not about science vs humanities but as about particular kinds of science and non-science subjects?

Event Materials

This event is now archived and we are pleased to provide the following event media and assets, along with the original event overview.

Booking

You will need to register to join this webinar. Please register here

Other upcoming events

CGHE Webinar
Tuesday, 18 November 2025 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
All times BST. Seminar Room E and MS Teams, registration required
Vera Spangler
CGHE Webinar
Tuesday, 4 November 2025 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
All times GMT. Seminar Room E and MS Teams, registration required
Michael Bastedo
CGHE Webinar
Tuesday, 11 November 2025 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
All times GMT. Seminar Room E and MS Teams, registration required
Maria Gretzky
CGHE Webinar
Tuesday, 25 November 2025 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Seminar Room E and MS Teams
Tania Mednikova
CGHE Webinar
Tuesday, 28 October 2025 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Hybrid. All times BST. Seminar Room C (Department of Education ) and MS Teams,. Registration required.
Mir Abdullah Miri
Holly Rooke
Corinne Squire
CGHE Webinar
Tuesday, 21 October 2025 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
All times BST. Seminar Room E and Teams, registration required
Steven Alvarado
Privacy Overview
Centre for Global Higher Education

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.