News: The Further Mathematics Network Press conference

The Further Mathematics Network held a press conference on Thursday 7 September at the London Mathematical Society headquarters in Russell Square, London.

The press conference was held to celebrate the completion, this term, of the national Network of 46 regional Further Mathematics Centres to cover the whole of England and the dramatic increases in the numbers of students taking Further Mathematics, which are due largely to the activities of the Network.

The speakers were:

	Charlie Stripp, the national Programme Leader, who gave a presentation on how the Network has developed, its purposes and what it has achieved so far;
	Professor Marcus du Sautoy, of Oxford University, who emphasised the vital importance of Further Mathematics to stretch and inspire able sixth form Mathematics students and the way in which the Network was bringing sixth form Mathematics students into direct contact with universities;
	Sir Peter Williams, chair of the Advisory Committee for Mathematics Education, who highlighted the economic need for far more students study Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at university. A key point he made was that Chinese universities graduated 600,000 STEM students in 2004.

The press conference was attended by students, teachers and Further Mathematics Centre Managers with direct experience of working with the Network, as well as key representatives from education and industry.

The event had an extremely positive atmosphere. There was a strong feeling that the Network is making significant progress and that the academic and business worlds fully support what we are doing.

We hope the press conference will generate useful press coverage to reinforce our two key messages.

• AS/A-level Mathematics and Further Mathematics are vitally important subjects that lead to interesting and lucrative careers and should be taken by many more students.
  
• The Further Mathematics Network now makes it possible for all A-level Mathematics students in England to study Further Mathematics, either in their own school/college or, where this is not possible, via the Further Mathematics Network.

For the full press-release and presentations visit: http://www.fmnetwork.org.uk/press_releases.php

Charlie Stripp

Further Mathematics Network Programme Leader

posted 10/09/06