The health of chemistry across the pipeline

In the very first issue of Chemistry World, Nobel laureate and former Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) president Harry Kroto highlighted the need to address the decline in popularity of studying chemistry and find ways to ‘revitalise teaching’. His warning came following a 25% drop in the number of undergraduate chemists over the previous five years, which, he said, had serious implications not only for university chemistry departments but also for the future of the UK. Two decades on and with chemistry departments once again under pressure there are warnings that the field has come full circle. But do the numbers reflect this – has the health of the chemistry pipeline improved since 2004?