Crisis in Science Students Seen

Research universities are facing a growing crisis as the supply of well-trained students continues to lag behind the increasing nationwide demand for scientific research, the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) said yesterday.

Research universities must cope with rising costs as a result of new fields of study and more capital-intensive experiments at a time when universities are being forced to take on a larger share of research expenses, Erich Bloch told a Science Center crowd of about 150 last night.

In order to meet an increased demand for research in this era of high costs, a well-educated technical workforce is essential, Bloch said. Unfortunately, he said, there is a nationwide trend away from quality education in the sciences, both at the pre-college and undergraduate levels.

"The need for people is there. The paradox is, at the same time, there is a decline in freshman interest in science," he said.

Additionally, a demographic decline in the number of 18-year-olds will further aggravate the situation, he said. The combined trends will eventually hurt the U.S.' economic competitiveness, he said.

Bloch also said that the NSF, which is a major source of federal funding for university research, has been shifting its focus the last few years from strictly supporting research to funding programs that encourage high school and undergraduate science education.

He said, however, that the NSF has no coherent program for science education but rather supports "bits and pieces" of various programs.

Bloch also acknowledged that the federal government's support for science research has been insufficient. As the percentage of the American Gross National Product spent on research has stayed constant at about 2.8 percent in recent years, Japan's has doubled during the same period.