Science is increasingly becoming less prevalent among certain parts of worldwide university students which leads to some impact on society. This essay aims to analyse the causes of this phenomenon along with proposing why its drawbacks outweigh benefits.
There are two key elements that pose the phenomenon, namely high-demand in candidates’ qualifications and longer time studying. Regarding the first one, the criteria of the majority of science subjects is the barrier for some students to pursue as these are academically rigorous fields; therefore, there is a tendency of institutions only accept a certain percentage of enrollment who have excellent academic background. Compared to creative majors such as art, the requirements are witnessed to be less content-heavy which results in a higher number of enrollments being accepted. An exemplary illustration of this is that , addressed by The New York Times, the acceptance rate of science-based majors is one fifth of other majors in top fifty universities in the United States. Another point to consider is that, the pathways of science subjects are comparatively more strenuous. To explain, in favour of being able to get employment related to their subject, after achieving bachelors, students are encouraged to enroll in tertiary institutions to achieve specialism which drives a trend of some students abandoning their dream to work in scientific fields.
The drawbacks of the phenomenon in which students no longer prioritise scientific subjects at university carries several drawbacks which seem to prevail over its benefits. A deeply concerning number of science graduates each leads many nations to cope with the shortage of scientific labour, making the national science and technology to stagnate. Additionally, the second prominent drawback is that an imbalance of science-based and other forms of labour force further results in a rising percentage of unemployment. One case of this point, in New Zealand, the expected outcomes of science graduates seamlessly declined by two percent each year, written in The Heralds.
To conclude with, the tendency of students to avoid taking science subjects in universities in recent years is caused by its highly-demanding criteria and the arduous pathways accompanied by some catastrophic side effects on society.