Ann. appl. Biol. (1969), 64, 189-201 With I plate

Printed in Great Britain

Applied biology as an educational discipline

BY L. BROADBENT School of Biological Sciences, Bath University of Technology

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF APPLIED BIOLOGISTS DELIVERED ON THURSDAY, 3 JULY 1969

An increase of interest in biological education at all levels has been obvious during the last two decades. This stems from the realization that advances in biological knowledge during this second half of the century are likely to be amongst man’s greatest and most exciting achievements, leading to an ever greater control over his own life processes and his environment. This recognition has been a long time coming; biology remained largely systematic and descriptive until the 1940’s and few biologists applied the other sciences of chemistry, physics and mathematics to their studies, and fewer, engineering or materials science. Consequently most biological processes in industry were in the hands of chemists, and several of the applied biologists in agriculture and the manufacturing industries were self-taught, having been educated primarily as physical scientists.

What a change have we seen in the past twenty years. Biology is now just as exact a science as the physical sciences; indeed, modern biology is a superstructure on a base of the physical sciences. However, so many external influences impinge on a living organism that exactitude in biological research is much more difficult, and therefore more intellectually challenging, than in any other science. The change from qualitative observational studies to the analytical and quantitative approaches to bio- logical processes has been greatly enhanced, even in many instances only made possible, by the development during recent years of sophisticated tools such as the electron microscope and analytical centrifuge. Such levels of observation, measurement and analysis have not been seen before in the biological world and their consequence has been a major restructuring of knowledge and teaching.

The new interest in the biological sciences of biochemistry and biophysics, in molecular and cell biology, and in plant and animal physiology, has led to a prolifera- tion of disciplines and of courses under the umbrella of Biological Sciences. This interest is reflected also in the number of new biological journals and books, and indeed, Nature often appears nowadays to be primarily a biological journal. The number of new journals and of scientific abstracts has been calculated to double every 15 years or so (Price, 19631, and presumably we have not yet reached the end of this particular road.

Greater specialization has become the order of the day and this development has been reflected in the formation of more learned societies and journals, some of them actively promoted by members of this Association. There was no cohesion in this biological activity, however, until the formation in 1950 of the Institute of Biology, to work alongside the 73-year-old Royal Institute of Chemistry and the 32-year-old

13 App. Biol. 64

1 90 L. BROADBENT Institute of Physics. Before that date there was no organization to put the views of biologists to the Government and other bodies, or to the general public. The achieve- ments of the Institute of Biology in such a short time have been considerable and it can now speak on behalf of over 6000 professionally qualified biologists, these com- prising nearly half the total of all those now actively employed in the U.K.

What part does applied biology play in all this ferment and what do we understand by the term? Obviously it should cover all the activities of man concerned with living things, but his long interest in himself and his domesticated animals has led to the development of the separate specialized disciplines of the medical, pharmaceutical and veterinary sciences. The great increase in synthetic drug manufacture in the pharmaceutical industry, and the demand that these drugs should be adequately tested before being put on the market, has stimulated a need for pharmacologists, toxicologists, animal physiologists and biochemists that still cannot be met. Although these disciplines often fall within the orbit of applied biology in educational institu- tions, they are shared with the pharmacists, who are very jealous of their para-medical autonomy, which this Association has always recognized.

There are two very important areas of applied biology that the Association ought to have covered and fostered. I regret that biologists first left them in the hands of chemists in industry and then our Association took so little interest in them that those engaged in their study found it necessary to start two new societies, the Society for Applied Bacteriology and the Society for General Microbiology. I refer, of course, to food processing and fermentation, two of the most important biology-based industries.

Fisheries, too, we have neglected. The Government has promised to increase financial aid for the study of hydrobiology and its applications, which will become increasingly important during the next few years, as will aspects of ecology and nature conservancy, other subjects in which we have taken too little interest. Here we must include a field of study that is of prime importance to modern man, the pollution of his environment by chemicals used in food processing and in pest, pathogen and weed control, by the excess use of fertilizers, and the by-products of his travel, heating and manufacturing processes.

We, as an Association, have been primarily interested since our formation in 1904 in one aspect of biological activity-that connected with the agricultural and horti- cultural industries. Until last century the growing of plants, as distinct from the rearing of animals, was regarded as a craft that did not require a medicine man to oversee it. Horticulturists are still thought of as among the lowest paid craftsmen, as gardeners who need little training.

Plant disorders were piously regarded as acts of God over which man had little influence, and one prayed for relief in church instead of calling in the vet. Perhaps that is why so many clergymen were keen gardeners ! With the increasing application of science to food production, the physiology and biochemistry of plant growth, crop ecology, plant pathology and protection, and plant breeding came within the purview of our Association and remain almost all that we have claimed from the much wider realm of applied biology. I sometimes think that the title of this Association is slightly misleading, if not arrogant, but reflect that the others are free to join us if they wish.

Applied biology as an educational discipline 191

Applied Biology, in its wider sense, should be regarded as concerned with all aspects of production, processing and effects of food, drink and drugs. What could be of greater importance to man at the present time? It is estimated that the population of the world will double during the next 30-odd years and that almost two-thirds of the present population is undernourished. As Professor Bunting (1964) told us in his entertaining and thought-provoking Presidential Address, it would seem necessary to treble the output of food in the lifetime of most people here, if mankind is not to suffer dire want, although food prejudices and distribution difficulties will also have to be overcome. Much could be done in our own field of crop protection. Cremer (1967), in his comprehensive survey of crop losses based on F.A.O. statistics-the best available although admittedly scanty and inadequate-concluded that on a world scale we lose about 147’ from insect and other animal pests, 12% from fungal, viral and bacterial diseases, and 9 yo from weed competition. These total about 35 % of the potential production, such production being defined as that which would have been realized if the losses had not occurred, not the maximum production that could be achieved by exploiting cultural knowledge to the full. Calculated in another way the decrease in actual production is about 54%. Added to this must be the losses in storage and transit from insects, mites, fungi and bacteria, often calculated at about 15 yo. Thus at least half of the food and fibre produced by man is never consumed by him or utilized. What a challenge for us and the next generation of crop pro- tectionists !

I have defined Applied Biology as I, and probably most members of this Association, understand it. We must now consider the possibility of using it as an academic discipline, although this would present a contradiction in terms for many scientists of the old school, specially those in universities. As you are aware, the word ‘ academic’ is often used to indicate that a subject is studied for its own sake without reference to any applications that it may have. Originally it meant ‘of or belonging to an academy or college or learned society’. The older learned societies were intensely interested in practical matters during their early years but after the industrial revolution had changed the pattern of life in Britain it became ungentlemanly to have anything to do with trade or manufacturing. So arose the attitude which enables the Oxford Dictionary to attribute the term ‘modern’ to the definition of the word ‘academic’ as ‘not leading to a decision; unpractical’. I wonder how long it will be before a new edition of the Dictionary puts ‘archaic’ instead of ‘modern’ after these words? Perhaps not as long as some people might think, for there has been an increasing interest in problems of practical importance in many university departments during recent years, and an attempt by Government agencies to encourage the universities to take more interest in industry. As Bunting (1964) pointed out, ‘pure’ biological sciences developed from ‘ applied ’ biology, and the view which regards applied biology merely as the application of the appropriate pure sciences to economic or social purposes is very superficial. There has also been much debate as to whether or not vocational training should be done in the universities. Sir John Wolfenden in an interview reported in New Education (May 1968) stated that: ‘You can go right back to the three fundamental faculties of the universities of Western Europe, all of which were strictly vocational-theology, law and medicine’. Of course technologies

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192 L. BROADBENT such as agriculture, engineering and medicine have long been accepted, even in our oldest institutions, but staff and students in agriculture and engineering have never had quite the same status as those in the so-called natural science departments. We have a precedent, nevertheless, for accepting applied biology and its several specializa- tions as suitable subjects for educational disciplines. The impetus of the trend towards establishing the applied sciences as respectable will undoubtedly accelerate and it received a boost during the last decade through the rapid development of the new technological universities. Their elevation has set the seal of governmental approval at last on studies in applied science and technology, even if these are looked at some- what askance by some of our older university brethren. The C.A.P.S. researchstudent- ship scheme operated by the Science Research Council is another example of the way in which the Government is successfully encouraging the universities to take more interest in industry and applied science.

You will all agree that children should be taught to understand scientific concepts and their implications because these rank with art and literature among the great achievements of man’s imagination. They also penetrate almost every aspect of modern civilization, yet how often are scientific subjects taught in schools without their relevance being stressed? Man is an animal, depending upon plants and other animals for his very existence, and biology should be one of the basic subjects in his education. Despite being so selfish, man is a social animal and biology and social science should be taught in schoal in an endeavour to inculcate a social conscience and a sense of service to the community. In this, British education has conspicuously failed. How many pupils really appreciate why science is studied? Surely the ultimate aim is to acquire new knowledge that will benefit man?

Fortunately the importance of biology in general education has been increasingly realized in recent years, and the numbers studying the subject to ‘0’ level increased more than five-fold between 1935 and 1959 and exceeded those taking chemistry or physics (Kelly, 1967). In 1966 thirteen times as many pupils took ‘0’ level in a biological subject as in 1935. Sir Gordon Cox (1964), Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council, has written that any of the sciences has enormous educational value if properly taught. Natural sciences have the advantage of dealing with living and fast developing subjects, so anyone properly educated in them is not only trained, as in law, to examine ideas and statements critically and logically but is prepared for change and for the adaptation of old ideas to new circumstances. This is of inestimable value not only in science but in general world affairs. I would place the emphasis on ‘properly taught’. Before the 1930’s biology was not commonly taught in schools beyond ‘nature study’ at primary level and unfortunately few of our present men of affairs have any knowledge at all of biological principles (Kramer, 1954). Even now the majority of pupils cease to study the subject in their early ’teens, only 19% of those with ‘0’ level biology taking a biological subject at ‘A’ level in 1966, and how is it taught then? Most of today’s teachers, in studying biology at school and later at university, treated it as an academic exercise. They have little idea of its applica- tions in industry and consequently few teach anything about them in school. Professor Darlington has said that ‘the obstacles to change have been most forbidding in the sciences dealing with life’, but the pioneer work of the Nuffield Foundation in Britain,

Applied biology as an educational discipline I93 and of other groups, is beginning to influence the schools and examination boards. Four of the eight G.C.E. Examination Boards now include some reference to the applications of biology or botany in their syllabuses.

As wc arc in Wales, let us salute the Welsh Board for being the most advanced in this respect; included in their Botany syllabus is ‘ Applied Botany-The principles invoh ed in food production as illustrated in the study of: weed problems; biology of cereals; soil and water conservation; rotation of crops; disease control ; plant breeding’ ; and also : ‘ Bacteria-their importance in disease and decay in industrial pro- ccsses’.

The new approach to science teaching in schools will go a long way towards making people more aware of how scientists think and work, but I am doubtful about the extent to which the relevance of science to man’s everyday affairs is communicated in most schools. Education should not only stimulate the mind but make people fitter to take their place in the community, and I believe that the application of all science subjects should be stressed wherever possible. Technology and science are so closely interdependent that to teach one without reference to the other can hardly be called sound education. Some far-sighted teachers have done this but they have been too few; I was fortunate in that my first job was teaching in a Derbyshire school where biology had been given an agricultural and applied bias since 1919, and the year I spent there broadened my education considerably.

Dyer (1967) has written convincingly on what he called this crisis in biology, con- cluding that although our educational and research investments are among the highest in the world, our application and industrial growth rate are very poor because, in contrast to most industrial countries, we have educated too high a proportion of pure scientists and far too few applied ones. He quotes the decline in numbers of students qualifying in agriculture and medicine during 1954-1964 and the neglect of hydro- biology, microbiology and other applied aspects of our subject. ‘I t is in the schools that most of the required changes must be initiated’, and Dyer stresses the need for schools to pay attention to human biology and agriculture (‘it is a subject of sufficient depth and importance to stimulate a wide variety of possible approaches’). Un- fortunately, it is in the teacher-manned subject panels of the examination boards that we find most resistance to the introduction of applied topics into the syllabuses.

Until now rural science courses have been confined largely to secondary modern schools or to lower forms. Slade (1968) pointed out that they are usually taught by teachers trained in colleges of education, not by graduates, and are still regarded, as is much of applied science, as second rate and for the less academic. He stressed that teachers are their own worst enemies by emphasizing the craft element more than the sciences. The recent development of B.Ed. courses with specialization in rural science, interpreted as the science of crop and animal production, and of ‘A’ level syllabuses in schools, is likely to raise the status of the subject. It would be better still to change the title to environmental science, for it is unfortunate that the term rural has a straw-in-mouth connotation in this urban-dominated society of ours. Recently several different bodies have been encouraging teachers and schools to take more interest in the applications of science. The Science Fairs organized by the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Sunday Times have many

1 94 L. BROADBENT applied projects, and the Schools Council Project Technology is very active. The new approach to teaching in schools, treating science as a way of thinking, as a method of seeking answers to problems, means that student work will be centred more and more on the laboratory and the field, where real problems can be explored, rather than on the classroom. It is also being realized that biology can act as a bridge between the physical sciences and the arts, reaching towards the physical sciences through biochemistry, biophysics and bioengineering, and towards the arts through psychology and the social sciences. We cannot neglect the social sciences. As Hardisty (1968) has said in an excellent article on the relationships of biology teaching to human needs: ‘if we are to include technological studies in our school programmes we must be insistent on fostering a critical approach to social values and to the repercussions of technological changes on man and society. It is not enough to present the “gimmicks” and “gadgetry” of science without regard to the ends which these may serve and the uses to which they will be put’.

Turning now to what is known in Britain as ‘further education’, the Institute of Biology, responsible with the Department of Education and Science for the organiza- tion of Ordinary and Higher National Certificates and Diplomas, and for its own examinations leading to Membership, has done much to foster education in applied biology during the last 15 years. In particular it has ensured that several pathways or ladders exist for young people who find themselves employed in the biology-based industries and are stimulated to try to achieve further qualifications. The technical colleges, some of which developed into the former Colleges of Advanced Technology and the emerging Polytechnics, have played a major part in the thinking behind modern biological curriculum changes and the universities are only now beginning to catch up with some of the ideas that these institutions introduced. In the technical colleges the biological sciences and the medical laboratory sciences are increasing at the rate of 3-6 % per year, and the 3500 students in these subjects now comprise about one-half of the total student population. In 1958 the proportion was only about 1/3oth. (I am indebted to Mr E. Norris, H.M.I., for this information.) This change is in- dicative of the pressing demand for more and better technicians and technologists in applied biology. In the U.K. forty-seven colleges are now offering courses for the H.N.C. or H.N.D. in applied biology or medical science and the number of students studying Applied Biology has risen considerably: H.N.C. in applied biology from 106 in 1964 to427 in 1969, and H.N.D. from 22 in 1966 to 141 in 1969. There are currently about 600 applied biologists and about 1500 medical technologists at this level and together they comprise about one-third of the total applied science and mathematics populations. With the well-supported C.N.A.A. degree course work at five of the major colleges (Barking, Hatfield, Liverpool, Portsmouth and Woolwich), something like half of the total work in science in the technical colleges is now in biology, most of it in applied areas. This interest in applied biology on the part of the Institute and the D.E.S. arose partly because it became clear that many university graduates were neither properly prepared nor mentally orientated for working in the biological technologies. The O.N.C. course in the Sciences covers 2 years, devoted to the physical sciences and mathematics and allowing some specialization in biology. The H.N.C. course covers 2 years of study of quantitative biology and a special subject drawn

Applied biology as an educational discipline I95 from a wide list, depending upon the expertise of staff at a particular college; the list includes entomology, microbiology, and physiology.

Students with I1.N.C. (part time course) or H.N.D. (full time course) in Applied Siology, or with the Certificate of Education with biology as a main subject, can attend a 2-year full time or a 3-year part time course for M.I.Biol., which is now generally recognized as being of honours degree standing and is accepted by uni- versities for registration for courses or research leading to higher degrees. Some 440 students are working for Part I M.I.Bio1. at fifteen colleges, and 140 for Part z at eight colleges. The first-year syllabus covers the principles of biology and a special subject, and during the second and third years a student continues his special subject which may be biochemistry, ecology and behaviour, entomology, micro- biology or plant pathology. Since the examination began in 1966 biochemistry and microbiology have been the most popular specializations. The first candidates in entomology (two) and in plant pathology (four) will be examined this year. These furthcr-education routes to qualifications are particularly important because many of the students are working or have worked in industry and are sponsored and en- couraged by the biology-based industries; others are employed as technicians in universities or colleges, in research institutes or hospitals. It is important that such routes should continue to exist for those who were not stimulated at school or failed to achieve their maximum potential for any other reason. Many of those on day or block release from industry have a strong desire to learn the biological or other scientific principles behind the processes with which they are familiar, and the students’ expertise in these processes is often of educative value to the teacher. The rapid development of biological science courses in this area during the last few years is likely to continue for some time, for there has been a steady growth in the require- ment for graduate and technical staff for the last 20 years and there are no signs of the growth slackening.

I will introduce my remarks about university education in biology by quoting a Koyal Society Committee which stated that ‘undergraduate biology provides an admirable general background for those who may later go into business or general affairs’. I believe it was Professor W. 0. James who once said that a strong case could be argued for biology being able to play in the late 20th century the part that classics played in the education of the 18th century or 19th century; an experimental sciencc concerned with life itself is surely an ideal means of education for living in the world that now is. This is a far-sighted view, so far in fact that there arc few outside bio- logical circles who would accept it.

University and other advanced courses in applied biology are of recent origin, and I shall say something of these in a few minutes. First, though, I would like to pay tribute to those few enlightened biologists who introduced their students to some of the applications of biology in their university courses. Like medicine and veterinary science, agriculture and horticulture have had well-established courses at universities for many years, and several of our founding and early members taught these subjects. Professor Western (1965) discussed the relationships between the traditional and applied biological subjects in universities, and stated that ‘ in the applied degree the association of science with its practical associations throughout the impressionable

196 L. BROADBENT years of undergraduate training can do much to mould a man’s approach to the problems facing him’. He considered that ‘the applied man, because of his natural interests, is more likely to adapt himself to conditions in industry than his more academic fellow ’.

The ‘ spiritual home ’ of this Association was from 1917 until recently at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. The entomology, nematology and plant pathology courses there have long had an applied bias and a high proportion of our commercial, advisory and research scientists in crop protection were trained there. Professor R. K. S. Wood tells me that between 1945 and 1969 graduate work in plant pathology earned Ph.D.’s for 84 students, and 70 have taken the postgraduate course in this subject during the last 12 years, these students coming from 30 different countries. Courses in microbiology and food science are of much more recent origin, having developed since 1947. Earlier courses in bacteriology, from which some of them developed, were usually medically orientated.

Medicine is perhaps the only technology that has a higher status than the sciences in public esteem, partly because of the fear of illness and partly because of good trade union and professional organization. Agriculture and Horticulture, on the contrary, are at the bottom of the pecking order. They are the oldest of our technologies, but age and familiarity have bred contempt rather than veneration. The pressures within the universities led most ‘applied ’ departments, such as agriculture and horticulture, to try to achieve greater respectability by stressing the science rather than its applica- tion, the technology. I do not think it is a matter of what is taught, for the science content of technological courses at university level must always be considerable and usually predominant. What is important is how it is taught, and the impressions the students receive from the staff. If all the emphasis is on the science rather than the technology, on research rather than industrial and agricultural practice, then few graduates will be attracted into industry, and the teaching staff lay themselves open to the ‘ivory tower’ condemnation which they richly deserve.

Almost all the older applied biologists received the now outmoded academic training that was typical of our universities until recent years but they have continued to educate and train themselves throughout their careers. Is there any need, therefore, to change the pattern and provide special courses for biologists who wish to enter applied fields? Will not the new emphasis on cell and molecular biology in many universities provide just as well-educated and adaptable minds as the older descriptive, morphological and taxonomic biology? Undoubtedly yes, for the purpose of a uni- versity course is to develop the students’ capacity to think, and one curriculum is likely to be as good as another for this purpose, but the evidence suggests that too few of those so trained have wished to enter industry or to do applied research in the past, and the 1966 survey of employment by the Institute of Biology (Marsh, 1966) showed very emphatically that industry wants well-educated specialists such as bio- chemists, microbiologists, pharmacologists, toxicologists and horticulturists, not general biologists, for its research and development teams. General biologists, botanists and zoologists were in demand only for school and further-education teaching. It was this demand from industry that led to the development of the Dip. Tech. courses in Applied Biology, Biochemistry, Horticulture, etc. in the Colleges of Advanced

Applied biology as an educational discipline ‘97 Technology, now changed into honours courses with their elevation to universities. Bath and Brunel were two of the first to introduce courses in Applied Biology, in I 957, linking academic education with industrial training through the sandwich type of course, another new venture in biological education. Since then Bradford and Salford have developed similar courses, and Strathclyde and Aston Universities and the Welsh College of Advanced Technology have developed applied biology courses without the sandwich training.

Other courses for C.N.A.A. biology degrees in five technical colleges or poly- technics have also been developed recently, and most of these have adopted the sandwich system and an interest in applied biology. Most of the courses in the new technological universities are of 4 years’ duration, Bath and Brunel having three periods of about 6 months in industry during this time, Salford two periods, and Bradford one of a year. In this connotation ‘industry’ includes any place where aspects of applied biology are practised, including Government research and advisory laboratories, in the U.K. and occasionally overseas.

During the 4 years that I have been at Bath I have become increasingly impressed by the benefits that students derive, particularly from the ‘thin’ sandwich course. Interspersing their studies with two or three 6-month periods of specially arranged and supervised ‘ industrial’ work enables them to appreciate the relevance of their academic studies. It also gives them direct experience of several types of biological work, enabling them to choose future careers with more assurance; and the experience of working directly with operatives as well as junior management broadens their outlook and matures them more rapidly than students who concentrate on academic work, This is recognized by many employers, who offer higher starting salaries to our students, partly of course because they are a year older than those who have taken a 3-year course but mainly because they already know the attitudes of industry and have had some of the corners rubbed off them. The University also benefits, because the students are visited by their tutors while working in this country, and this broadens the outlook of the staff and often leads to collaborative research. Every silver lining has a cloud however, and the ‘thin’ sandwich programme does deprive the students of all or most of their long vacations and may restrict their sporting and social activities, as they are away from the university usually in the summer term. Onions (1968) has pointed out that the continued proliferation of sandwich courses may well threaten their future. Unlike engineering and some other subjects, applied biology courses have attracted few industry-based and sponsored students, that is students maintained at college by their firms, to whom they return for their industrial periods. So the uni- versities and colleges have to find places for their students and soon too many students may be seeking too few places. Onions called for some coordination of these efforts to place students but no one has heeded him as yet.

There are many patterns of courses in biology in our universities and naturally no agreement that one is better than another. Many changes have been made in the design of the Bath course in Applied Biology and in its content during the 12 years since its inception, and no doubt more will follow in the future, At present students study general biology with an emphasis on plant and animal physiology, for the Part I examination in their second year, after four I I-week terms in the University and one

198 L. BROADBENT period of 22 weeks in industry. During this time they also take an integrated course in biological chemistry, one on microbiology, one on genetics and one on statistics. During the next 2 years they specialize in one of five options : animal or plant physiology, microbiology, crop protection or pharmacology, spending five terms at the University and two more periods in industry. Thus half the course is a broad survey and half a study in depth, a pattern that has educational merit as well as fitting the students for future employment. Specialization in the other applied biology degree courses is usually during the final year only. In addition, all the Bath students study a modern language or take a course in sociology, politics and economics during the first 3 years, and a course in management and administration during the fourth year. Like most university students nowadays they also experience the thrills, which are few, and the disappointments, which are many, of research; all undertake a research project during their final year, many of them bringing back problems that stimulated their interest while they were in industry.

Brunel students specialize in applied botany, vertebrate physiology, applied en- tomology, biochemistry or microbiology during their fourth year, as do Bradford students in applied microbiology, nutrition and toxicology, or plant protection. Strath- Clyde has separate degree courses in applied microbiology, biochemistry and food science in addition to biology. Salford students can specialize in parasitology or applied hydrobiology as alternatives to entomology or microbiology in their fourth year, and at Aston in the third and final year specialization is possible in hydrobiology, bio- deterioration or fermentation.

Few people regard an undergraduate course as an adequate preparation for a pro- fessional job. Further training is necessary to prepare what we hope is now a flexible mind for a career in teaching, in research, in industry or commerce. About eighty M.Sc. taught courses in biological sciences, most of I year but a few of 2 years’ duration, are offered by British universities. Many of these are concerned with applied aspects of biology but universities do not find it easy to achieve viable groups because grants for postgraduate courses or research are becoming more difficult to acquire. During recent years about one-third of graduates in biological subjects have been staying on for postgraduate courses or research (Swann Report, 1968) but of those seeking SRC studentships in 1969 only about 27% will be successful. M.Sc. courses of interest to members of this Association include those in Applied Entomology at Imperial College, London, and Newcastle; mycology and plant pathology, and nematology at Imperial College; plant pathology at Exeter ; genetics and plant breeding, and grass- land improvement and renovation at Aberystwyth ; whole plant and crop physiology, and food microbiology at Reading; conservation at University College, London; and the relatively new and well designed courses in crop protection at Bangor and Reading.

Most of those staying on for postgraduate training in research undertake problems that confine them to the laboratory for the next 2 or 3 years; a Ph.D. thesis on a field problem is relatively rare, probably because most students and their tutors think they will obtain more reliable results more quickly in the laboratory. There is undoubtedly a tremendous amount to be done on the biochemistry and physiology of plants and their pathogens but ecological and epidemiological studies are just as exacting for training young people in research methods, and if more field problems were tackled

Applied biology as an educational discipline = 99 a highcr proportion of our future research scientists might take an interest in the wider problems of agriculture.

I t is pleasing to record that some of the newer universities are following thc lead set by London and Reading and are encouraging research scientists in industrial or government laboratories to register for higher degrees. In the School of Biological Sciences at Bath we now have fifteen such registrations. I t is essential that there should be adequate facilities for the research and a good supervisor for younger staff at the place of work, that the proposed subject should interest a member of the uni- versity staff who is willing to supervise the work, and that the student has a period of attachment to the university which may be, for instance, a month per year, in addition to attending seminars and making periodic visits for consultation. Older, experienced workcrs are usually asked to give one or more lectures, and the university tutor makes contact with industry when paying occasional visits to the student; thus the university benefits as well as the student.

Because of the tendency to channel our brightest young people into the academic world we have produced a disproportionate number of scientists and research workers during the last 50 years, and our research and inventiveness are second to none. Unfortunately we have failed to produce enough good technologists and technicians to develop and apply this new knowledge, with the consequence that our industries have, in many instances, not kept up to date and our competitiveness and industrial prestige have declined dramatically. We often hear of British inventions that are ex- ploited abroad more actively than here, and I know from personal experience how the results of our agricultural and horticultural research are often taken up more quickly by growers overseas than by our own growers. One cannot blame the industrialist and grower alone for this; most research workers show a lamentable lack of interest in the industry they purport to serve. This Association does its best to encourage a wide interest in applied biology but it is uphill work, because most members employed in research are interested only in their own narrow field of study. Perhaps this may change in the future as more graduates in applied biology are employed. Unfortunately the Agricultural Research Council does little to encourage close links with the industry and the trend towards an even greater proportion of speculative work in the research institutes is regrettable.

Among many industrialists, farmers and growers there has been a reluctance to employ graduates because of the suspicion (too often justified) that these are imbued with the ivory tower mentality and fail to ‘keep their feet on the ground’. This is now changing and there is a demand for good graduates in several applied biological fields that cannot be satisfied. Even in horticulture there is a bright future for graduates interested in management, the demand for which is likely to increase greatly as the industry modernizes itself.

It is now generally agreed that the country needs more of its best brains in manage- ment, advisory work and applied research, but still too few studying pure science in higher education later opt for careers in these fields.

We must try to eliminate what stigma still remains attached to careers in business and industry, and probably no one can do more to achieve this than school teachers and university lecturers. Those who take a teacher’s diploma course after a traditional

200 L. BROADBENT biology course, or are studying for B.Ed., could be introduced to some of the applica- tions of biology if part of their course were spent in industry or a Government research laboratory ; perhaps 3 weeks of the long vacation before they start their fourth autumn term would be possible, and the biology specialists in the training colleges could seek help from biologists in local industry in the way of occasional lectures.

It might be possible to change the attitudes of older teachers by offering more short courses on aspects of applied biology for serving teachers but first local authorities must be persuaded to fully support teachers who attend them. We have been very disappointed by the numbers of teachers who have attended the short 4-5-day courses that we have offered at Bath. There is no qualification or reward for attending such courses and only the keen teachers come, not those who would benefit most. The branch meetings of the Institute of Biology are now playing an important part in this context because many school teachers have joined the Institute in recent years and their outlook is broadened by meeting and visiting industrial and research biologists who work in their region. But perhaps the best hope for the future is to encourage more of our applied biology graduates to enter the teaching profession.

Has the Association of Applied Biologists any role to play in the educational field? Although it has neglected its opportunities in the past, I hope that the Association will pay more attention to education in the future. It is one of the oldest of the bio- logical societies but little has been heard of or from it in educational circles. Only a minority of university biologists, and hardly any school teachers, have even heard of its existence. It is time that we remedied this, for probably most of us firmly believe that an education in the principles of biological thought is essential for any well- educated person in the future, and that all children should be shown the relevance of their education to man’s activities. We have a difficult task in front of us, for there is little doubt that many, if not most, schoolmasters and mistresses regard technology as second rate and actively encourage their brightest pupils to study the traditional ‘pure’ sciences when they go to university. Try to persuade your school friends that there are first class careers awaiting those with degrees in Horticulture! This attitude is probably adopted because it was prevalent when we were at university, and perhaps in some instances because of a fear of the unknown, for many schoolteachers have little idea of what a study in technology covers and what fields of interest it opens up.

The development of present trends is likely to remedy this situation in time and the Council of the Association has decided this year to try to accelerate this process by offering to sponsor and pay the expenses of a limited number of our members as lecturers to local meetings of the British Association Young Scientists (B.A.Y.S.) and has under consideration the award of prizes at Science Fairs and other meetings for the best exhibits of applied biological projects.

In reviewing education in applied biology I have drawn upon my own experiences and have no doubt failed to mention much that is relevant. No attempt has been made to describe what is being done overseas (see Morgan, 1969). However, perhaps I have demonstrated that the subject is not only of great importance in relation to the welfare of man but is also a sound educational discipline.

Applied biology as an educational discipline 201

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