Chemistry lover intern Renae asks where is the love?

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~ by Renae Soppe

Understandably, there are certain university degrees that are more popular than others. You might be in a very popular course with a cohort of a few thousand or in a small tight knit course of less than 50 students. As a self-confessed lover of all things chemistry, I often wonder why we are such a lonely science - with a class of only 30-odd at my university.

In a recent procrastinated visit to Sydney's Powerhouse Museum on a lonely rainy day, this trend was highlighted to me. A Harry Potter exhibition filled the museum with hundreds of teeny boppers donning 'Hogwarts' gear and dreaming up their wedding to Daniel Radcliff. Not a fan of the franchise, I cringed as I passed the crowds and made my way into the actual museum.

I was stoked to find a chemistry exhibition showing all the beautiful things in this world that completely revolve around chemistry. But, sadly I was the only person occupying the space and playing with all the fun interactive displays like a kid in a candy store. I was left thinking to my self (and out loud because there was no one else around me) "Why does no one else find this stuff fascinating?!"

I had a conversation with a chemistry professor at uni not too long ago. He recognised a decline in chemistry students, to the fact that they are considering changing the course outline for a chemistry major in order to entice more students. Fair enough - most degrees require some kind of first year chemistry experience, but the number of students that actually graduate with a chemistry degree is frightening (well, to me).

Since I'm part of a small chemistry group, we know (almost) everyone at my uni who is studying chemistry or doing a degree that requires third year chemistry courses. To my knowledge only about 10 students graduated with a Bachelor of Science majoring in chemistry last year from my university. So my question is - where is the chemistry love?

According to The Australian Graduate Survey, in 2010 there were 160 chemistry graduates in a total of 42,081 Australian university graduates. That's only 0.38% of the graduates! To put this in perspective, in the same year there were nearly 10,000 business and accounting graduates, nearly 5,000 in education, just over 1,000 in medicine and nearly 2,000 in life sciences. The percentage of chemistry graduates fell from 0.43% in 2008 to 0.38% in 2010. I was unable to obtain the stats for 2011 yet but I'm afraid the results might break my heart.

I understand that medicine saves lives and the economy can't survive without business and everyone needs good teachers. But come on! Chemistry isn't that scary! It's responsible for all the beautiful colours and fragrances in the world, not to mention the chemical reactions that help keep you alive.