Nowadays, there is an increasing trend of choosing to study more of non-science related subjects among applicants. The main cause of this could be the difficulties associated with studying sciences. In longer run, this issue could lead to the scarcity of science-related specialists.
Science subjects are harder to study compared to humanities. Usually subjects related to science require to read lots of articles, do deep reseraches on very specific topics and solve math problems. These kinds of charasteristics could scare potential students interested in learning sciences. Similarly, when I was in school, I really liked math, but when choosing subjects for my last two years in school, I preferred history and Russian language. This happened because I did not want to complete long research assignments and was scared of difficult math problems on final exams.
However, this rising problem will lead to decreasing number of professionals in science-related spheres. If all young people will continue choosing liberal arts or creative fields instead of science subjects, then there will be a scarcity of people who could serve our community in technical problems. According to the “New generation” magazine, in 2024 only 34% of prospective students in the UK applied to science majors in universities, which will result in only 3,4 million of professionals when they graduate. Comparing this numbers to the population of the UK (77 million) obviously shows that soon the world will face the problem of scarcity of science specialists.
In conclusion, the causes for decrease in number of applicants to science subjects are the struggles related to learning sciences, and this could lead to the significant drop in the quantity of needed specialists in the near future.