SCIENCE
Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what progress he has made in agreeing a standard definition of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. [139788]
Mr Willetts, Minister of State (Minister for Universities and Science): The Government recognises the possibility of confusion caused by having different definitions of STEM; however, these are designed for different purposes by different organisations (not all of which are Government-funded) and there are good reasons for the existence of different definitions.
A definition of STEM based on subjects studied, as in the definition used by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) based on the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS), is practical, objective and broadly consistent over time. The JACS coding frame is owned and maintained by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and is used for subject coding of provision across higher education in the UK; it can be used for international comparisons and other statistical analysis. Skill contents of courses as set out and monitored in the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) Subject Benchmark Statements provide valuable information on educational standards but have a qualitative nature that makes them unsuitable for such analysis.
The Government encourages those using definitions that are based on JACS but covering slightly different sets of JACS subjects (depending on the context) to always make explicit the precise definition that has been used (and why).