There is currently a shortage of mathematics teachers in the UK, which has been linked to a high number of graduates from Russell Group universities who rarely pursue careers in the education sector.
Gatekeepers News reports that this was highlighted by Catherine Hobbs, the Director of the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research, at a recent summit.
She explained that the failure to train enough math teachers could be attributed to changing patterns of undergraduate recruitment over the past decade.
“Meanwhile, annual enrolments in maths have reduced to a few dozen at some institutions with middling tariffs (cheaper fees).
“Some departments are getting smaller and smaller until they are not viable and this is significant for teaching because about 25% go into maths teaching but just 8% from the upper echelons [higher tariff institutions] go into maths teaching”, she said.
The shortage of math teachers has become more apparent due to the government’s plan to mandate math education for all school students in England until the age of 18, which was announced in January 2023.
This initiative will require the recruitment of many more math teachers to meet the increasing demand.
Professor Hobbs pointed out that the UK was experiencing an increase in “maths deserts” due to the closure of lower tariff maths departments.
She emphasized that the removal of institutional student number controls in 2015-16 had a significant impact on many math departments.
She explained that this situation was partly influenced by government metrics aimed at promoting admissions to Russell Group universities.
“Maths is very cheap to expand – you don’t need big pieces of equipment or new laboratories ….”
“That would be great if the number of maths students was growing overall, but it’s staying the same as it was placing huge pressure on smaller departments in Oxford Brookes University, which announced plans to shut its maths department in November 2023”.
“That might mean that a young person from the Oxford area – say from Cowley – who is very bright but doesn’t get an A* at A level, who wants to study maths but can’t get into Oxford, will be advised to do computer science at, say, Bristol, even if the employment outcomes would be as good for them as studying computer science”.
She however suggested that eliminating the Russell Group metric would be a positive move.
However, she stated that returning to student number controls was unlikely and might even worsen the situation.
