Home > Job News > Graduates > British physics graduates 'are ignorant' < Job News and Info

British physics graduates are ignorant when compared with their American and European counterparts, it has been claimed.

According to the president of the European Science Foundation Ian Halliday, the "single biggest weakness" of British physics graduates was their narrow research focus, reports the Times Educational Supplement.

Mr Halliday told the news provider: "When they move on to (postdoctoral study) in the States or Europe, they not only appear ignorant, but they are ignorant."

"And the possibilities of them moving on are much more limited than they should be, because they don't have a good (broad) background," he added.

Professor Halliday, chief executive of the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (Supa), hopes Scotland will lead the way for British graduates.

Supa brings together researchers from Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, St Andrews, Strathclyde and the West of Scotland.

Meanwhile, three Japanese physicists - Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Masukawa - have won the nobel prize for physics after their research, which was a precursor to quark theory, was proved by scientists at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation.

To find and apply for the latest graduate jobs in London see our dedicated London graduate jobs section.