Extravagant claims about one person’s influence on Physics recruitment
The Telegraph comments on the ‘Brian Cox effect’ and suggests that it has resulted in a surge in demand for physics:
Manchester has always been a popular choice for physics but the university admitted that a recent rise in applications had been partially driven by the attraction of Prof Cox, one of the department’s academics and presenter of television series such as Stargazing Live and Wonders of the Universe.
He currently teaches quantum mechanics and relativity to first year students.
It also reflects the increasing popularity of the subject nationally on the back of publicity surrounding the Large Hadron Collider at Cern.
Across Britain, the number of students taking degrees in physics has soared by 50 per cent in just eight years to reach more than 40,000 in 2011.
Of course such an impact does take time – it starts with the GCSE and then A level choices made at school before we even get to the university application stage. So whilst the latest surge in applications to Manchester and for Physics more broadly may well be attributable at least in part to Professor Cox, it is not the whole picture.
Here at the University of Nottingham we have witnessed a similar phenomenon.
Professor Martyn Poliakoff is a leading figure in the Periodic videos project and has arguably had a similar impact on Chemistry. See this recent video, which has been viewed over 2m times, for example:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTtf5s2HFkA&w=670]
So it’s not just about the Brian Cox effect. It’s also the Martyn Poliakoff phenomenon.
