Institute of Physics puts skills at centre of latest reinvention

With the grand central London premises of Britain’s learned societies mothballed for months during the pandemic and the future of their in-person public lectures and conferences still uncertain, there has been much thought about how these historic institutions might revamp their roles in public and academic life.

That quest for continued relevance is nothing new to the Institute of Physics (IoP). For decades, it has been wrestling with the issue, given the industrial background of many of its members (it now has about 23,000 and an annual budget of £72 million) as well as its sizeable academic activities (it publishes more than 100,000 articles a year across dozens of its Bristol-based titles).

In 1970, when it received its royal charter almost a century after its foundation, it rejected the opportunity to rebrand as a “royal society” to focus instead on its professional roots as an “institute”. In 2018, it left its home amid the embassies and mansion flats of Portland Place to relocate to a purpose-built headquarters in King’s Cross, a stone’s throw from Google’s vast £1 billion offices and the area’s emerging Knowledge Quarter – but also closer to Islington’s schools, which its staff visit regularly.

Today, its latest reinvention as a professional body leading the charge to upskill Britain’s young people and workforce in the physics-based skills that many companies require has come at an opportune moment, with Boris Johnson’s “skills, skills, skills” Tory conference speech highlighting the area as a major government priority.

Raising the profile of the physics-based industries, worth £177 billion a year to the UK economy (about 10 per cent of gross domestic product), according to IoP calculations, is one way that the institute can make the case not just for more investment in skills training but also for more research funding, said Louis Barson, the organisation’s director of science, innovation and skills.

“The photonics industry is one of the UK’s hidden gems – it’s worth more than £14 billion a year and employs about 200,000 people, which makes it comparable in scale to the aviation industry,” explained Mr Barson, a former adviser at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on the unheralded network of businesses using the science of light, such as those making optical fibre cables for broadband services or consumer electronics.

But growth in these high-wage, high-tech physics-based industries has recently been hampered by a lack of skills, he continued. “We did a survey and found two-thirds of physics-based businesses stopped or delayed recruitment because they did not have access to the right skills.”

Because tackling this problem requires a long-term approach, the IoP’s strategy, launched in 2019, also focuses on improving the uptake of the subject at A level and apprenticeship level, partly by debunking perceptions of the subject.

“We surveyed 2,000 parents about physics, and it was often described as a boring, lone endeavour – but we know that’s wrong,” said Ray Mitchell, head of the Limit Less campaign strategy to tackle myths about physics.

“You might hear all about the scientist who took the photo of a black hole two years ago because that is an easier story to present, but there were actually more than 200 people involved in that photo,” he explained, adding that “tackling stereotypes will help more people to choose physics”.

To do so, increasing the uptake among girls, who account for just one in five A-level physics students, will be crucial, said Charles Tracy, head of education, who notes that physics is the second most popular subject for boys but just the 15th most popular subject for girls.

“You don’t see that difference at independent schools, where girls take physics at the same rate as boys,” said Mr Tracy, who added that the UK school system is short of about 4,000 specialist physics teachers, causing many students to study general science, rather than individual level biology, chemistry and physics.

For Mr Barson, the Westminster government’s spending review was “a key moment, and we want to make sure there is an ambition to address things that matter. But if we don’t get what we need, we need to keep the pressure on until the next budget.”

Demonstrating the economic importance of physics research and education is now literally at the heart of the IoP, with its ground floor home to a number of physics-based start-ups keen for a foothold in the area’s emerging technology scene.

“There is a lot of potential for the physics-based economy to grow, but we need to tackle these structural issues if the UK is going to progress,” reflected Mr Barson on the challenges for his organisation and the UK. “We need to get the basics right if we are truly going to be a leading science nation.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com