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PHYSICS courses in England and Wales are too hard, too crammed, too
taxing on undergraduates and incompatible in standard with degrees awarded
in other European nations. These are among the conclusions of a report,
The Future Pattern of Higher Education in Physics, that was published last
week by a joint working group formed by the Institute of Physics, the Standing
Conference of Professors of Physics, and the Committee of Heads of Physics
in Polytechnics.

It recommends ‘substantially’ reducing the content of courses to make
them less daunting and more relevant. The working party’s head, Bob Chambers
from the University of Bristol, said that the content of the courses would
be reduced to ‘core physics’.

Graduates wishing to study beyond a degree would take a supplementary
course lasting one year. He said that courses had been added to at ‘a hysterical
pace’, and that undergraduates are introduced to too many new concepts in
three years to ‘digest’ them properly.