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Encouraging Student
Interest in Science
and Technology Studies
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION
AND DEVELOPMENT
The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 30 democracies work together to
address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at
the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and
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experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate
domestic and international policies.
The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea,
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FOREWORD
Foreword
T he evolution of student enrolments in science and technology at various levels of the education
system has been an issue of considerable interest in many OECD countries over recent years, given
that the economy is increasingly driven by complex knowledge and advanced cognitive skills. Some
countries are worried that, given future demand for skills, not enough young people are interested in
studying science and technology,* a view summed up by the US National Science Board:
If the trends identified in Indicators 2004 continue undeterred, three things will happen. The
number of jobs in the US economy that require science and engineering training will grow; the
number of US citizens prepared for those jobs will, at best, be level; and the availability of people
from other countries who have science and engineering training will decline, either because of limits
to entry imposed by US national security restrictions or because of intense global competition for
people with these skills. The United States has always depended on the inventiveness of its people in
order to compete in the world marketplace. Now, preparation of the S&E workforce is a vital arena
for national competitiveness (NSB, 2004).
The Global Science Forum authorised an activity on the subject at its Ninth Meeting in
July 2003. This issue was identified as an OECD priority as a result of the ministerial meetings of the
OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (January 2004), and of the Education
Committee (March 2004).
Based on the recommendations of a steering committee (chaired by Professor Jean-Jacques Duby
of France), presented at the Global Science Forum meeting in July 2004, a working group was
established, composed of representatives from 16 countries, the European Commission and the
OECD Secretariat, and chaired by Professor Sjoerd Wendelaar Bonga of the Netherlands. Statistical
data on student enrolments and graduation rates were submitted by 19 countries, and analysed
together with information on factors contributing to possible declining interest and solutions
attempted in different countries.
The Working Group’s preliminary results and recommendations were presented and debated
during an international conference co-organised by the OECD Global Science Forum and the Ministry
for Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands in Amsterdam on 14-15 November 2005.
The present report summarises the main findings and recommendations from the working
group following this conference and presents detailed analyses of the statistical data, causal factors,
and solutions implemented or proposed by various countries.
The overall goals of the Global Science Forum activity were:
1. To analyse quantitative trends in enrolments in S&T studies during recent years (and, in
particular, to quantify the extent of any decline).
2. To identify the underlying factors that affect students’ choices.
* For the sake of convenience, “science and technology” is used throughout the present report to
designate science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
ENCOURAGING STUDENT INTEREST IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES – ISBN 978-92-64-04069-4 – © OECD 2008 3
FOREWORD
3. To explore solutions that can be implemented to influence such choices.
Secondary goals were to identify the limitations of the existing indicators and models of the
complex phenomena involved, and to explore the need for extended data and information sharing.
The study did not address the potential impact of a decline on national economies and on society
in general, nor the relationships between supply and demand for S&T students.
Acknowledgements. The report was drafted by Valérie Hemmo and Patrick Love, under the
direction of Frédéric Sgard, from the Global Science Forum secretariat. The statistical
components were mostly put together by Laudeline Auriol, from the OECD Economic Analysis
and Statistics division and by Nicolò Wojewoda for BEST Survey. The qualitative analyses
resulted from a collaborative effort from the members of the Global Science Forum working
group on Declining Interest in S&T Studies Among Young People: William Thorn (Australia),
Sabine Borey and Henri Eisendrath (Belgium, Flanders), Pierre Feyereisen (Belgium, Wallonia),
William Coderre (Canada), Nils Andersen and Kurt Johannesen (Denmark), Stephen Parker
(European Commission), Hannele Kurki, Marja Montonen and Anneli Pauli (Finland), Jean-
Jacques Duby, Pierre Malléus, Florence Robine and Magda Tomasini (France), Christian Kerst
(Germany), Eamonn Cahill (Ireland), Enrico Predazzi (Italy), Yasushi Ogura (Japan), Ki-Wan
Kim and Myungsoo Park (Korea), Jacky Bax, Roeland Oevering, Piet Timmermans and Sjoerd
Wendelaar Bonga (Netherlands), Doris Jorde and Svein Sjøberg (Norway), Joao Caraça
(Portugal), Max Kesselberg (Sweden), Barbara Olds (US).
This publication was supported by contributions from the Ministry of Flanders (Belgium),
the National Science Foundation (US), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
(Germany), the Radboud University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands), the Academy of Finland
(Finland), and the Department of Education, Science and Training (Australia).
4 ENCOURAGING STUDENT INTEREST IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES – ISBN 978-92-64-04069-4 – © OECD 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Synthèse (en français) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 1. Quantitative Analysis: Is There a Real Decline? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Overall trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Quantitative trends in student choice for S&T studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Chapter 2. Complexity of Contributing/Influencing Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Recent evolution of the context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Image of and interest in S&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
S&T education and curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Teacher motivation, training, qualifications and development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Gender and diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Chapter 3. Increasing Student Interest in S&T Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Bottom-up and top-down action plans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Acting on S&T interest and literacy for all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Addressing future S&T-based professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .