The document discusses the Q-Step program, a £19.5 million initiative funded by several organizations to address the shortage of quantitatively-skilled social science graduates in the UK. The program provides additional teaching posts and curriculum changes at 15 universities. However, the document argues that Q-Step alone is not enough, and that school-level mathematics qualifications and expectations also need to be improved to better prepare students for social science degrees and careers requiring quantitative skills.

1. Making Numbers Normal: is
Q-Step enough?
Sharon Witherspoon
Director, Nuffield Foundation
www.nuffieldfoundation.org

2. Context of concern
 ESRC demographic review & ESRC “MacInnes report”
www.nuffieldfoundation.org/q-step
on QM skills in social sciences
 ‘Market failure’ to produce QM skills at school
(Nuffield Foundation: Is the UK an outlier? and
Mathematics in A level assessments)
 Shared sense that many emerging problems require
quantitative skills and that different disciplines bring
different perspectives
 NOT anti-qualitative: not epistemological statement

3. Q-Step
 Strategic response to shortage of quantitatively-skilled
www.nuffieldfoundation.org/q-step
social science graduates.
 £19.5 million programme
 Developed and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the
ESRC and HEFCE
 15 universities, 5 years, 58 departments, 53 new posts
 Resources to be shared across the higher education sector
through an accompanying support programme, which will
also forge links with schools and employers.

4. Additionality
 Additional teaching posts – up to 4 per centre – and institutional
www.nuffieldfoundation.org/q-step
changes in curriculum and expectations
 Other additionality:
‒ New courses, some leading to badged degrees
‒ Labs, hands on, ‘learning by doing’.
‒ Bursaries for summer schools or courses elsewhere (incl. after 3rd year)
‒ Bursaries for work placements/internships at different types of employers
(govt, research institutes, users of analysis)
• TO YIELD ADDITIONAL: recruitment of secondary students, more
students with basic skills, more students doing quantitative secondary
analysis for third year projects, more with advanced skills

5. Q-Step Centres
Read about the Aims and Activities of
the Q-Step Centres via
www.nuffieldfoundation.org/q-step
www.nuffieldfoundation.org/q-step

6. A long term issue
“It is vain to conceal the melancholy truth.
We are fast dropping behind. In
mathematics we have long since drawn
the rein, and given over a hopeless race.”
Charles Babbage, Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on
Some of its Causes, 1830.
Source: Hillman, Mathematics after 16, Nuffield Foundation, 2014: p. 5

7. International comparisons I
Proportion of post-16 students studying any mathematics
All (95-100%) Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Japan, Korea, Russia,
Sweden, Taiwan
Most (81-94%) Canada (BC), France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, USA (Mass)
Many (51-80%) Australia (NSW), Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore
Some (21-50%) Hong Kong, Scotland, Spain
Few (6-20%) England, Wales, Northern Ireland
Source: Hodgen J et al, Is the UK an Outlier, Nuffield Foundation, 2010: p.38

8. International comparisons II
Proportion of post-16 students studying advanced
mathematics
High (31-100%) Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan
Medium
(16-30%)
Australia (NSW), Estonia, Finland, France, Hong Kong,
Scotland, Sweden, USA (Mass)
Low (0-15%) England, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Northern Ireland,
Russia, Spain
Source: Hodgen J et al, Is the UK an Outlier, Nuffield Foundation, 2010: p.38

9. Some signs of improvement...but....
150,000
140,000
130,000
120,000
110,000
100,000
90,000
80,000
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
Mathematics AS level entries
Mathematics A level entries
Further Mathematics AS level entries
Further Mathematics A level entries
Source: Hillman, Mathematics after 16, Nuffield Foundation, 2014: p. 9

10. Proportion of 2010 undergraduate intake
with A-level Mathematics
Physics 98%
Economics 68%
Biological sciences 28%
Psychology 21%
Human and social Geography 18%
Anthropology 10%
Politics 9%
Sociology 5%
Source: Hillman, Mathematics after 16, Nuffield Foundation, 2014: p. 22

11. Source: http://www.mathsisfun.com/data/standard-normal-distribution.html

12. What is to be done?
• Q-Step is a start, but it isn’t enough
• Do we have the right SCHOOL qualifications
o A-S & A level maths, Core Maths AND……..?
o Number and data analytics content of social science A levels
• University signalling of in-take requirements
• Are learned societies part of solution?
• University staffing ……
• And school teaching capacity?

13. Source: http://www.mathsisfun.com/data/standard-normal-distribution.html