ABSTRACT
This chapter recounts the progress of a project looking at problems in chemistry, but it is typical of most of the practical sciences. The cost of laboratory work and the high staff-student ratios considered necessary to teach these subjects led to extensive reorganization at the end of the 1980s. Universities found there was a need to evaluate their chemistry teaching and research in relation to national trends. The report of the enquiry University Chemistry: The way forward (Stone, 1988) suggested redeployment of resources to fund 30 large departments each with 30 or more academic staff. At that time probably some 120 institutions offered degrees in chemistry, so the report caused some gloom, but there was expansion in some universities to produce very large chemistry departments. These tended to attract the majority of well qualified applicants. Many small departments have closed as a result, and others are likely to follow this lead.
