I’ve just done a quick web search which revealed that courses in Ecology Marketing and Primary Education at three different universities all require study of mathematics and/or statistics. Of course this is no surprise – every September students who thought they had said goodbye to mathematics forever arrive at university only to discover that there is a substantial numerate content in their chosen course even if it is disguised as ‘research methods’ or ‘data analysis’. Many of these students are dismayed at having to re-engage with mathematics; they lack confidence and have been labelled – or quite often have labelled themselves – as ‘bad at maths’. Even those with decent GCSE grades often say things like ‘I don’t know how I got a B – I never understood what I was doing’.
