The Case for a Broad Undergraduate Science Degree

There is widely felt dissatisfaction with the standard of the undergraduate science degree - the average B Sc from a typical university. Entrance tests and interviews of B Sc candidates, even those with high marks, bring out gaps in understanding and skills. The creation of the IISERs was one response to such a situation. Many of the strong UG science programmes in the Central Universities and the five or four-year science degrees in the IITs predate the newer initiatives and have sent many students into research. The Indian Institute of Science started its undergraduate programme six years ago. All these programmes measure their success by the number going on to a Ph D - all the better if abroad. Against all odds, a few B Sc programmes in the universities have kept pace, with a significant fraction of their graduates going onto research. For a country of our size, there is room for even more such 'quality' programmes training potential researchers. However, these will always be a small fraction of undergraduate science degrees awarded in the country. This editorial is about the remainder.