Educating spectrocopists

A. N. Davies, External Professor, University of Glamorgan, UK, discusses some facts about the education of spectroscopy to undergraduate students. There are certain analytical spectroscopic techniques which are found in almost all undergraduate courses which include spectroscopy around the world. The students have increasingly difficulty in grasping not only the complexity of what is being taught but more fundamentally have problems in following the advanced mathematics involved. The teachers must closely look at the relevance of what they are presenting and weigh the content more closely against the backgrounds of the students and the uses to which the content will be put when the students leave the organization. The study of advanced spectroscopy requires that a great depth of specialist knowledge is taught to those embarking on this course.