UCL – Written evidence (PSU0037)
Executive summary
STEM skills
Attracting international talent
Porosity between sectors
Enabling STEM careers for all
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1.1 The UK’s reputation in science and research is attractive to researchers internationally, but the cost of visas and the immigration health surcharge, particularly for individuals moving with families, is a significant deterrent. This is particularly an issue for early-career researchers, and is compounded by the cost of living crisis, making moving to the UK unaffordable for many individuals whom we would seek to attract.
1.2 Since January 2021, 60 individuals have started at UCL on a Global Talent Visa. Over 40% have come from Asia, about a fifth from Europe and roughly a fifth from North America. The Global Talent routes have been flexible in accommodating different roles and endorsing bodies have been very helpful in their communication and efficient in their decision making.
1.3 However, the Home Office has been a significant barrier to attracting talented researchers and becoming a science superpower. There have been significant challenges with securing visas and Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) clearance for overseas applicants, with a number of delays and rejections of applications from outstanding individuals without clear reasons provided by the Home Office. There is a need for a more agile, flexible and transparent process in order for the UK to attract talented individuals from across the world.
1.4 Criteria for visas emphasise track record and can therefore disadvantage early-career individuals; in this case their potential should be considered alongside their track record.
1.5 More positively, post-study work visa availability has made a material positive difference to recruitment in some student markets, such as pharmacy.
1.6 We need a better understanding of the process and individuals' experience in attaining GMC registration when they move to the UK in order to work in the NHS (and engage in research alongside partner universities), to inform efforts to attract clinical researchers to the UK.
2.1 Areas in high demand now and likely in the future include statistical and computational skills, particularly in AI and big data, skills in the analytical sciences and in the energy sector (in particular battery and other energy storage but also hydrogen and renewables). The latter provides an example of the need for skills cutting across multiple disciplines (in this case, fundamental chemistry, materials science and engineering).
2.2 The STEM skills gap is evolving rather than growing or shrinking. For example, life sciences needs are evolving as UK strengths in the life sciences ecosystem develop. Our experience with SMEs and the pharmaceutical industry indicates that there is considerable, mostly unmet, appetite for expertise from clinical researchers who are proficient in computational, data science and AI skills.
2.3 UCL is finding it increasingly challenging to recruit research technicians, who of course underpin STEM research, in part owing to a lack of an attractive career pathway for technicians.
2.4 The UK’s positioning as a science superpower goes beyond STEM skills – a breadth of skills across disciplines is crucial to the UK’s standing. It is important to train STEM graduates with broader, more transferable skills, including in the social sciences and humanities, not just those with narrow based STEM skills. Cross-disciplinary working is also essential for tackling societal challenges (such as climate change, obesity, ageing society – see para. 3.3).
2.5 There is a need for a more joined up approach to the use of STEM in our knowledge economy, involving more exchange, porosity (see next section) and integration between different sectors.
2.6 In STEM disciplines there can be a tension between providing the in-depth training required to reach technical proficiency while incorporating other important transferable skills that prepare students for a future career. While education has a role to play in arming students with transferable skills, there is also a need for employers to provide job-specific training to build on these skills. Constructive engagement between universities and employers is needed to:
2.7 Support for student and staff entrepreneurship, alongside basic training in matters such as IP and corporate governance, can broaden the range of careers open to people with STEM skills.
2.8 There is a need to improve porosity between sectors including academia, industry and government (both local and central) to enable mobility. This includes the need for permeability between industry and government, not just relating to academia. Associated challenges include:
2.9 Knowledge Transfer Partnerships provide a well tried and tested route for mobility between academia and business, particularly for individuals relatively early on in their career (the scheme does not work for more established professionals).
2.10 Considering other schemes, the UKRI Impact Acceleration Accounts can provide some limited support for secondments, as can the Royal Society Industrial fellowships, but such support could be expanded. There is also a secondments unit in the Civil Service to “promote further use of secondments and interchange”. There would be value in creating funding schemes that enable secondments, including at the mid-career stage, lasting longer than six months.
2.11 UCL supports porosity between academia and policy through initiatives including UCL Public Policy, the Policy Impact Unit, UCL Policy Lab and Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE), a knowledge exchange and research project across multiple universities that explores how to support effective and sustained engagement between academics and policy professionals, including through policy fellowships.
2.12 It would be a mistake to focus on STEM disciplines in isolation when considering how to develop skills across multiple disciplines. The UK has particular global strengths in SHAPE disciplines whose skills and training are increasingly in demand for multidisciplinary challenges. For example, industry stakeholders have fed back to UCL that our attractiveness as a destination for investment and collaboration in fundamental AI is much greater because of the connections we can offer to social science, economic modelling, legal and regulatory scholarship and other disciplines that are now critical for many real-world applications of AI.
2.13 To incentivise STEM research across multiple disciplines, there is a need to improve the peer review process for interdisciplinary research bids. Firstly, peer review focuses on track record, which tends to bias decisions against researchers looking to gain experience in a new field; a stronger focus on potential would be valuable.
2.14 Secondly, it can be difficult to find reviewers in interdisciplinary fields, so experts in a particular area may not always be well placed to evaluate a bid. For example, experts in foundational AI can be asked to review proposals in applied AI despite not being experts in the applied area.
2.15 There is a need to address the latter issue systematically. It is possible that a two-stage application process (as suggested by the Tickell review) could enable a discipline-unbiased initial sift of proposals, followed by more carefully solicited expert comments at the second stage.
2.16 There is a role for financial incentives through grants/fellowships that encourage HEIs to increase focus on training interdisciplinary and intercultural competencies of their STEM staff.
3.1 A ‘whole systems’ approach has potential to maximise the impact of Government STEM initiatives, but this is frequently not realised. For example, targeted funding invested in the Faraday Institution for battery technology has led to an increase in research in this field, but this has not been accompanied by funding for Centres for Doctoral Training in basic electrochemical sciences, which would provide the underpinning expertise in this area. This has made it difficult to recruit researchers with the necessary skillsets.
3.2 There is an opportunity to build on the continuing interest in sustainability, climate change and net zero, which is inspiring many young people into physical sciences. Historically, the ‘CSI effect’ attracted more students into chemistry, but this coincided with the Government closing national forensic laboratories.
3.3 Efforts to address STEM skills gaps can be enhanced and complemented by investment in SHAPE disciplines; this is particularly important in our view for addressing wider government policy aims on major global challenges such as net zero, which benefit from a cross-disciplinary approach. As described by the British Academy, “[s]uccessfully addressing these challenges … will need not just technological solutions but the understanding of human behaviour and how to achieve social and cultural change which [the arts, humanities and social sciences] can provide.”
4.1 Academia is a highly mobile sector internationally, so there is a need to both facilitate this through enabling international mobility (see section 1) while also providing an attractive end-state (i.e. permanent positions) that encourages people to stay in the UK.
4.2 As noted in para. 2.8, salary competitiveness, particularly in ‘hot’ industry areas including AI, creates challenges retaining individuals in academia.
4.3 A positive workplace environment and culture, including research culture, focused on wellbeing and positive behaviours has a key role to play in making UK HEIs desirable places to work, attracting international talent and encouraging staff retention. We welcome the renewal of the Enhancing Research Culture Funding from Research England.
4.4 To support wider participation in STEM, there is a need to increase diversity throughout the educational STEM pipeline. The ASPIRES2 study on young people’s science and career aspirations, led by Prof Louise Archer at UCL, recommends building young people’s science capital, including by adopting the ‘Science Capital Teaching Approach’, and challenging dominant constructions and representations of STEM through representation in education and the media.
4.5 The Government should consider additional support and strengthening of requirements for ring-fenced PhD studentships via UKRI, allocated in line with positive action, or dedicated funding schemes for underrepresented/minoritised groups and students from lower income backgrounds to widen participation.
4.6 UKRI should consider the financial needs of PhD students given that the stipend is now lower than living wage, and it is important to ensure financial security for students, especially those with other financial responsibilities. Many UKRI-funded students require additional financial support from family, support which may be less available to some students.
4.7 There is a need for more opportunities for undergraduate students, especially those from non-traditional backgrounds, to gain experience in and exposure to research. UCL’s Office for Students-Research England collaboration with In2Research offers a year-long programme of workshops and research experience for underrepresented and disadvantaged students.
4.8 The requirement for a Master’s degree prior to a PhD can disadvantage students without sufficient financial resources for a Master’s. UCL strongly supports a blended 4-year PhD model where the first year is available for additional training and supervisor rotation projects (as opposed to the 1+3 model with a taught first year); this allows for additional skills and networks to be developed. This model also allows for part-time students and those with careers/caring responsibilities to participate (unlike with the 1+3 model, where the taught element cannot be as flexible).
4.9 For medicine e.g. MBBS, the Government and Health Education England are diversifying the breadth of candidates through schemes including medical apprenticeships (as recently announced), enabling people to work alongside training, thus widening the pool of future doctors.
4.10 There is a need to consider people as key outputs of the research process alongside traditional research outputs. Improving career stability and mobility is a key part of this. In particular, improving STEM career stability is crucial to make STEM careers inclusive and accessible to all. This is particularly important in the context of the increase in researcher population that will be required to deliver on the commitment for R&D spend to reach 2.4% of GDP.
4.11 The majority of postdoctoral researchers are on short-term contracts and there are few opportunities to have a career as a 'staff scientist', that is, someone with a scientific career that does not involve becoming a group leader. Funders are often reluctant to pay the costs of more senior postdoctoral researchers. However, this means that experience and skills are lost. While there is a move to longer-term (7+ year) fellowships, these are still a minority of grants.
4.12 The precarity of STEM academic careers stems from the funding of research in short-term grants. The following measures would improve the stability of funding and therefore of research careers:
4.13 The large number of PhD and postdoctoral positions relative to permanent academic posts heightens the importance of improving porosity between sectors (see paras 2.8-2.11) and training across multiple domains to enable several pathways to a variety of careers.
4.14 It is important that (as is the case at UCL) early career researchers have full access to employment benefits, such as parental leave, from day one.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to the following members of the UCL community, who contributed input to this submission:
6 September 2022