In April of this year I attended a Workshop at Heriot Watt University entitled “A Maths Toolkit for Scientists”organised jointly by LTSN Centres for Physical Sciences for Engineering and for Maths Stats and OR. This meeting addressed the general progressive decline in the mathematical ability of physical science and engineering students entering HE. There was clear evidence that the problem was being actively addressed by many universities commonly by mathematics departmental staff or by special units staffed by mathematicians. However my strong impression was that efforts to improve students’ mathematical ability was largely oriented towards “pure”mathematics where specifically algebraic symbols represent numbers. I was unconvinced that mathematicians generally appreciate what I might call the “special” mathematical requirements of scientists and engineers
