The Confederation of British Industry Call for Science Degrees to be Free. (October 20, 2006)

     The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has called on the UK's Blair Labour Government to make science, technology engineering and maths (STEM) courses more attractive to undergraduates if the UK is to create a viable home grown IT workforce and compete effectively with the developing and cheaper economies in India and China.

A report, Building a Globally Competitive Services Industry, written by CBI together with IT company LogicaCMG predicts that cheaper labour and outsourcing  means the UK IT industry is in danger of 40% of its services being delivered from and 60% of its workforce living"offshore" by the end of the decade.

And the co-authors call on the UK government to consider either abolishing, or at least reducing, the level of tuition fees for undergraduate STEM courses to reverse the decline in the number of students choosing these subjects.

They point to the most recent statistics on  university admissions service which show a 25% fall in the number of students opting to study maths and computer science degrees between 2002 and 2005.

And the report calls for "stronger incentives" to encourage more teachers and university lecturers into STEM subjects together with better liaison between the universities and industry which might be done through visiting lectureships -- something already supported by a handful of universities, where IT professionals are employed to teach some courses.

CBI's director general, Richard Lambert*, said: "The world is on the brink of a third industrial revolution and the easy flow of information over great distances and at low costs is vastly expanding the scope of goods and services that can be traded. The UK must ensure it has the skills needed to fill the jobs that replace those going offshore. Now, more than ever before, the government must equip young people with the right skills in science, technology, engineering and maths."

Chief executive of LogicaCMG, Martin Read, amplified Mr Lambert's comments saying, "High quality and value added service" should be the goal  of the IT industry. ""We must compete by differentiating ourselves and by ensuring that we retain the skills and competences needed to protect the UK's leadership position in this commercially crucial sector."