Education experts lead science education summit
Our academic experts have travelled to Malaysia to help shape the next two decades of science education policy at a three-day conference between 14-16 March.
In Malaysia, as in many countries, there is an acute shortage of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) specialists. The Leicester team will draw upon their UK experience to investigate ways to boost HE and FE recruitment in these subjects and, together with experts from around the world, will look at ways to help Malaysia meet future workforce requirements. The conference will be attended by prominent politicians, civil servants and leaders from UK high-tech industries including: Rolls Royce and BT.
Dr Tony Daniels, Director of EducationCPD+ and Dr Jo Anna Reed Johnson, Head of the Post Graduate Certificate in Education, School of Education will travel with Dr Mark Windale (Sheffield Hallam University) to the event which has been co-organised by the British Council, the Malaysian Ministry of Education and the University of Leicester. They will be supported in the UK by Dr George Forster, Director of Boost Education.
The aim of the conference is to review Malaysia’s progress toward its target of 60% of students graduating in STEM subjects and investigate ways to overcome challenges such as communication with large rural populations and students’ perceptions of STEM subjects as “boring and difficult”.
The conference is part of the Newton Fund initiative under the STEM Education strand. The Newton Fund is a £735 million initiative created to promote the economic development and social welfare of partnering countries by strengthening science and innovation capacity.