Subject Benchmark Statement: Chemistry
Publication date: 30 Mar 2022
Chemistry
Subject Benchmark Statement
Subject Benchmark Statements describe the nature of study and the academic standards expected of graduates in specific subject areas. They show what graduates might reasonably be expected to know, do and understand at the end of their studies.
Below you will find the full Subject Benchmark Statement for Chemistry. Alongside it, we have also published a summary designed to provide a short and accessible overview of the main Statement for students, employers and academics.
Subject Benchmark Statement: Chemistry - The Basics
Publication date: 30 Mar 2022
About this subject
Chemistry is the central science underpinning all aspects of life. It delivers huge societal impacts by allowing us to describe, understand and manipulate the world around us. It will continue to play an essential role in providing society with the toolkit for addressing sustainable development goals and global challenges. Chemistry graduates use their knowledge to gather state-of-the-art scientific information, design investigations to solve problems and disseminate their findings across a wide range of spheres.
Theoretical learning in chemistry includes a wide range of material that is central to the subject, is complemented by extensive practical experience and underpinned and enabled by mathematical, spatial, information management, project planning, communication, and creative problem-solving skills. Chemistry courses thus ensure that graduates can integrate their knowledge of chemistry with practical and transferrable skills, to undertake a wide range of activities, projects and careers with great success and distinctive subject insights.
Professor Lizzy Ostler - Chair of the Advisory Group
Visiting Professor, University of Brighton
The revised Benchmark is intended to capture the vibrant and exciting contributions that chemistry and chemists make to solving global problems, whilst also continuing to capture the fundamental knowledge and skills that all graduate chemists possess. The impact of chemistry on the modern world, and the wide variety of disciplinary relationships that make it central to the future of humanity was a key part of the group’s thinking in developing this new guidance.
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