For 16 years we at the University of Sussex (U.K.) have offered, as an option, a degree program in chemistry called "Chemistry by Thesis." In this program, after six months at the university, students move into a research laboratory alongside postgraduate and postdoctoral research workers, and take up carefully chosen research topics. From then on, the project represents the student's main commitment, and the degree classification is based wholly on his or her performance in it. To ensure that these students acquire a broad background knowledge, they must follow the lectures taken byconventional students, and are examined on the content of each term's instruction. However, they have only to reach a qualifying standard in each course, the level of performance not counting toward their degree assessment. In contrast, the degree class for conventional students is based on their performance on each course, and on a comprehensive final examination at the ...
The Lab Route to a Chemistry Degree
In his Up Front article "Promoting Undergraduate Science," Eugene Garfield rightly calls for greater participation in research by undergraduates. He points with favor to the British system in which it is common (certainly in chemistry courses) for students in the final year of their three-year degree programs to spend two terms (about 18 weeks) on a small research project. Frequently, when new British chemistry graduates are asked their opinions of the courses they have taken, their project work
Written byColin Eaborn
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