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From South China Morning Post, Education Section
By Richard Garner

Indian and Chinese pupils focus on science


Ethnic Chinese and Indian pupils studying in Britain are most likely to opt for a science degree at university, research released this week shows.

Youngsters from Bangladesh and Pakistan, on the other hand, prefer business or the law.

When it comes to children with a black Caribbean background, though, a course in the arts or a humanities subject is their most favoured route. They are also more likely stay at home and study at one of the newer universities. Medicine is most likely to attract students from Asian communities.

These are the findings of the most detailed research into the university options being pursued by the country's different ethnic groups, published jointly by the groups, published jointly by the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Physics.

"Indian and Chinese students show a strong preference for science at A-level compared with other ethnic groups," the report says. "In contrast, black Caribbean students reveal a strong aversion to both physics and chemistry, even at an early stage."

It adds: There is a significant attrition of numbers of black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshistu students at the first hurdle - GCSE to A-levels - often even before students have the chance to specialise."

The figures show that significantly higher proportions of Chinese and Indian pupils achieve a science A-level than the white population. This holds good for both boys and girls, it adds, although young Chinese males are thrre times as likely as young white males and Indian boys twice as likely.

Indian students are three times as likely and Chinese makes four times as likely to achieve three or more science A-levels. Figures are similar for girls.

When it comes to higher education, Indian and Chinese students are still more likely to opt for chemistry than white students, Indians twice as likely and Chinese three times. In physics, though, only Chinese have a higher take-up than whites.

The report acknowledges that one of the reasons for the poor take-up of science by Caribbean youngsters is their low attainment levels in the first place.

Dr. Sean McWhinnie, of the RSC, speculated that one of the reasons for the higher concentration of black Caribbean youngsters in the newer universities could be that they stayed at home during their studies because they came from poorer communities.

The report adds, though, that despite the higher percentage of those eligible studying science from the Chinese and Indian community, science at British universities is still dominated by white, particularly male, students.

Even whe black Caribbean youngsters have opted to take a science degree, they are likely to fare worse at university than white students, it adds. "For white students, 53 % of those studying chemistry and 54% of those study physics obtain a first or upper-second class degree," it says. "This compares with 36% and 29% for black Caribbean students."

It concludes: "Ethnic minority students tend to be under-represented generally ... in what might be considered to be the traditional subject areas of science (biological, physical, and mathematical sciences)."