Science degrees ‘unwelcoming’ to religious students

Science students are much more likely to face insensitivity about their beliefs than their peers in other subject areas, according to new research.

The study, based on a survey of more than 8,000 students across 133 universities, found that 51 per cent of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) identified as non-religious, slightly higher than the all-student average of 48 per cent.

But despite nearly half of STEM students describing themselves as religious – including 28 per cent who said that they were Christian – many said they felt that non-religious views dominated their courses.

The study found that around three in 10 students on STEM and medicine-related courses agreed that religious and non-religious differences created “a sense of division” on campus, compared with one in five students in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

STEM and medicine students were also more likely to report frequently hearing or reading insensitive comments about their worldviews. Significantly, the proportion who reported hearing such comments from university staff (around 11 per cent) was almost double the rate found in other disciplines.

Lucy Peacock, the lead researcher on the year-long project and a research fellow in Coventry University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, said that the findings were alarming and could have a significant impact on students’ academic engagement.

She said interviewees had shared some concerning stories of insensitivity or divisiveness that made them question whether STEM was right for them, but many of them self-censored religious expression to avoid conflict.

“This in itself is a product of an insensitive and divisive academic atmosphere, and we know from our own wider research into religion in higher education that self-censorship, or a lack of interaction across religious difference, is detrimental to students’ overall interfaith development,” she said.

Dr Peacock said a lack of opportunity for discussion in STEM subjects meant that they had failed to normalise religious beliefs.

“The perception that STEM departments are dominated by atheist and agnostic worldviews is simply normalised, despite there being a range of religious worldviews represented among STEM students,” she said.

The report makes a series of recommendations for how universities across the UK can improve STEM environments, including not scheduling work on religious holidays, allowing students to wear appropriate religious clothing in the laboratory without remark, and normalising talking about religion informally among religious staff.

If universities do nothing, Dr Peacock warned, students’ ability to engage in their academic studies might suffer, they would be less willing to engage across religion and worldview differences, and they might feel less safe in expressing their own religious commitments – all of which could affect the recruitment of STEM students.

In addition, she said, universities would not fulfil their equality, diversity and inclusion obligations and would feed into discriminatory and insensitive STEM workplaces.

“Should religion-related insensitive and divisive experiences continue in STEM education, we might reasonably expect graduates to perpetuate a climate of insensitivity and divisiveness beyond university,” she said.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com