Leader: Education committee update


Quite some time has elapsed since the last Leader from the Education Committee! In April 2021, we reported on how the committee navigated the uncertainties associated with the pandemic and the transitioning to online meetings. Unfortunately, the uncertainty lingered on through autumn and winter; but we have been very busy and, as a committee, we feel that a lot has been achieved!

First, we have continued our work on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Readers may recall that in 2021 the work of Nicola Morrill (the Society’s diversity champion) triggered an internal reflection on the different routes into the OR profession and the diversity of the pool from where new OR talent is drawn.

Nicola’s work showed most ORS members have parents with degree-level or equivalent education and suggests people from lower-income backgrounds are under-represented in both the ORS and wider OR community. Why is this the case? And is this a desirable state of affairs? Needless to say, we do not have the final answer to these questions and (worse) we cannot help feeling that addressing some of the underlying issues is well beyond the remit of the OR Society (let alone the Education Committee!).

Still, this work has inspired a few activities of the Education Committee. At a strategic level, as a committee of the ORS, one of our members is a de jure member of the Society-wide EDI group which oversees the delivery of the Society’s EDI ambition and strategy. Therefore, work is currently being done to understand diversity in the context of Education and whether it receives sufficient attention in the areas of work that are within the remit of the Committee. The ORiE taskforce has led the way and acknowledged that diversity is an area to improve on. As a result, they have started reviewing their activities and targets through the EDI lens. As a result, the taskforce has plans to update its strategic relationships/partnerships and will review how these align with the desired targets in terms of diversity to ensure their efforts are focused and complementarities are exploited. This is very promising work which we hope will be extended to the other groups that report to the Education Committee.

Vania Sena.jpg

Vania Sena, Education Committee

As members of the Joint Mathematical Council (JMC), we also had a chance to contribute to a discussion on the current state of the education pipeline in Mathematics. The discussion started from the observation that entry grades for Mathematics degrees are increasing across most universities in the UK and there is a fear this move will reduce the total number of students studying the subject as well as the diversity of potential hires with mathematical degrees. Whether this is the case or not (and we welcome views from readers), we agreed with the view of the JMC that this problem cannot simply be solved by universities alone but requires a large-scale effort involving schools and other providers.

As for the routes into the OR profession, our work on apprenticeships continues. The ORS is almost ready to submit its application to become an official End Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) for the Level 7 (L7) postgraduate apprenticeship in the occupation of ‘OR Specialist’. In addition, the L6 (degree level) apprenticeship trailblazer group is almost set up and a task and finish group will be set to develop the standards of the apprenticeships, as done previously in the case of the L7 apprenticeship.

On another front, we have contributed to the work for the development of standards for data science degrees and data science as a profession. Readers may recall this is a project led by the Royal Statistical Society in partnership with the ORS and other learned societies. Professional standards have now been agreed around five skills (1. Data privacy and stewardship, 2. Definition, acquisition, engineering, architecture, storage and curation, 3. Problem definition and communication with stakeholders, 4. Problem-solving, analysis, modelling, visualisation. 5. Evaluation and Reflection). Additionally, arrangements have been made to channel applications for professional status through the most relevant professional society, while ensuring that common standards are applied across the different societies.

This work has the endorsement of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and supported by resources from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and Turing Institute. The aim was to have the first ‘pilot’ cohort of applications for professional status go through the process by July 2022. The same model will be used for degree accreditation. Universities will be able to seek accreditation from the most relevant professional association to a common set of requirements, After over a year, some activities of the Committee are returning to the pre-pandemic ‘normal’. This is particularly relevant to the activities of the ORiE taskforce and of the Training Working Group (TWG). ORiE attended a large in-person science fair in early March which was very positive for the team and the volunteers. As for training, popular courses have been offered both online and face-to-face while less popular courses have been offered only online. While this slow return to normality is welcome, it is worth highlighting that an increasing number of face-to-face events will increase the pressure on the resources available to the two teams. This is particularly true for ORiE whose works rely on volunteers. A lack of volunteers was the main reason for missing more than half of the 16 events missed in 2021. We desperately need more active volunteers. Finally, an update on staff: our education manager, Eve Hardy, has left the Society in spring and we want to give her our heartfelt thanks for all her work and her contribution to the Education Committee. Fay Moore is taking on Eve’s portfolio of activities and we are looking forward to working with Fay from now on. aligned to the professional standards.

These developments have led to a committee-level discussion on degree accreditation and the extent to which the Society should be involved. While we would welcome the opportunity for the ORS to be involved in the data science degree accreditation, our concern is that as a society, we may make accredited data science degrees more appealing than unaccredited OR degrees. Our view is that it is worth developing OR degree accreditation alongside participation in the data science degree accreditation scheme. One option would be to link the degree accreditation to personal accreditation schemes so that students taking certain degrees are automatically given credits towards personal accreditation such as ACAP/CAP.

After over a year, some activities of the Committee are returning to the pre-pandemic ‘normal’. This is particularly relevant to the activities of the ORiE taskforce and of the Training Working Group (TWG). ORiE attended a large in-person science fair in early March which was very positive for the team and the volunteers. As for training, popular courses have been offered both online and face-to-face while less popular courses have been offered only online. While this slow return to normality is welcome, it is worth highlighting that an increasing number of face-to-face events will increase the pressure on the resources available to the two teams. This is particularly true for ORiE whose works rely on volunteers. A lack of volunteers was the main reason for missing more than half of the 16 events missed in 2021. We desperately need more active volunteers.

Finally, an update on staff: our education manager, Eve Hardy, has left the Society in spring and we want to give her our heartfelt thanks for all her work and her contribution to the Education Committee. Fay Moore is taking on Eve’s portfolio of activities and we are looking forward to working with Fay from now on.