Experts Discuss
Interviewed on: 4 JULY 2024
Location: Fort Canning Centre 5 Cox Terrace, Fort Canning Park, Singapore 179620
Guest: Professor Andrew Fleming School of Biosciences Professor of Plant Science The University of Sheffield, UK
Interviewer: Nazmin Yaapar
Professor Andrew Fleming (Sheffield): Education in the UK, Mental Health, Developmental Biology Role in Agriculture
Amin:
Right okay Hello Hello!
So, I guess this is the first episode for this playlist where we’re going to get someone very expert in something to have a short talk, conversation.
So today we have my own supervisor, from way back, from way back, way back way back. Yay...!
So, um Andy why don't you tell to our audience, who are you, what do you do, and maybe uh something a bit more.
Andy:
Okay so I’m Andy Fleming, I'm a professor of Sciences at the University of Sheffield in the UK. I was a PhD supervisor for Amin quite some time ago.
Amin: Long time ago. I'm ancient as well.
Andy: I have quite broad interest but generally to do with plant development in particular how leaves develop and how the structure of leaves relates to their function.
Amin: I would like to know I mean like what is your view on the education
because you're not only a scientist but you also do the teaching, yeah sure the research and teaching,
Andy: and yeah research and teaching and have some role also in management, leadership in the faculty
Amin: Yeah… I forgot you are the director of something?
Andy: I'm the faculty director of research and Innovation, very grand title
Amin-Andy: Very, sounds very very important
Amin: Yeah you know how how do I manage to get this guy? All right okay, um about the education, I just want to have your view, how do you feel because we had the conversation.
Andy: We've talked about this many times
Amin: Yeah about it many times and we seem to share the same views about the education. What would you like to say about it?
Andy: I mean I think we were following up we've had some discussions about this the last few days and first of all the preface is that obviously when I went to University in the UK this is back in the 1980s which is before some people here may have been born
Amin: 80s, listen to that 80s that's what, what gen is it?
Andy: No, no generation, no generation. Yeah, in those days in certainly the UK maybe 3% of people went to University so it's was quite a small number back then so the overall the numbers of students at University is much much smaller than it is now. So, in the UK probably not quite but almost 50% of young people go to university, which is a good thing, more people going into higher education is good. But that means it has a knock-on effect on how, I think, on the education experience that the students get.
Amin: Why do you think people afford it more now compared to before?
Andy: When I went it was free, everything was freed I mean tuition fees were paid for, there was a maintenance grant, didn't get much money but…
Amin: You got scholarship as well?
Andy: I got scholarship but for most it was it was free it was paid for by the government. And in the UK, I guess 10 15 years ago now, they brought in tuition fees but which is it’s actually a loan, so students build up a loan when they go to university and then are expected to pay back to the government over a length of time, depending on their on their income. But that has also meant there's been more money available to universities and they've expanded the numbers there been government policy for the last 20 odd years is to increase number of people going to university.
Amin: Right paying back this is what you refer to as the graduate tax?
Andy: In essence, although it's called in the UK a loan in reality it's a…
Amin: There’s no agreement like a formal agreement I mean like the moment you get involved with the education it's going to happen automatically?
Andy: Automatically, so most people in the UK you pay tax automatically it's done for you by your employer and if you've been to university that's noted and you have you taken a loan then I think it's like 9% of your salary above about £25,000 is taken as a cut.
Amin: So there is a proper agreement for the students
Andy: Absolutely this is what going to happen to you yeah everyone knows it's all very very clear
Amin: Can you opt not to take it if you want to?
Andy: You can if you're rich. You’re rich parents then you can not take the loan and pay for things directly um I think very few people do that. But that depends on the interest rate that they charge on the loan. So, it's quite a complicated calculation as to what you should do but for most people you take the loan and you pay a slightly higher tax over your lifetime which pays back some of the money that you've borrowed from the government
Amin: And the amount that you need to pay is going to increase with your progression in career?
Andy: Slightly it goes in again it's complicated there’s bands so it is linked to your income but mainly it's whether you are above a certain base income you will pay about 9% extra tax
Amin: So, in a way this is a good thing because many people can have education
Andy: At the at the time, it was brought out people were very afraid it's going to put off young people going to university. It's being exactly the opposite and more
people are going to university than ever before. I think the numbers may have slightly tailed off now but so it is a good thing.
Andy: If your aim or the government's aim was to have more young people go to university it has worked fantastically
Amin: For the sake of going to university
Andy: yeah yeah
Amin: What about the actuality of it, I mean like when you see the students yeah, is it possible that some of these students are actually doing it because “oh my friends are doing it”
Andy: I mean that that is again be very careful here. I mean obviously some of our students are absolutely fantastic and as good as they ever were. But I think it would be true that, because half the population are going to university, you make the decision about when you're 17, if all of your friends are going to university and you're not quite sure what to do, you go to university
Amin: Afraid of missing out
Andy: Missing out or it's it puts off hard decisions like for three or four years.
Amin: So at 17 is it largely influenced by the parents or not anymore?
Andy: Parents, school and also where your friends are going right. So, friends are going to places. And again there's definitely inequalities in the system as in um very often people from poorer backgrounds don't have the confidence to apply, low self-esteem, not many of their friends are going to University therefore and often unfortunately I think some schools because they're in a very a deprived area they don't expect their children or the kids to go to university and therefore that they're held down a bit. As other parts of the of the UK, in London it's been a really massive change that been very successful um of a very high portion of young people in going on higher education.
Amin: Probably some people got dormant potential
Andy: They got exactly, and that was that was the whole idea that people have dormant potential go to university and that brings out that has worked definitely but at the same time there's a tale of people who in hindsight I think when they get older why did I spend three or four years at university? Is this really benefited me?
Amin: So maybe education is more um making sense for certain industry? To have long education
Andy: Again, that if you ask industry or you read what they’re interested in the paper, they're often not that happy either because the people that are graduating don't have the specific skills that industry need. Again, that's again maybe a British problem
Amin: I think that's kind of like um Universal problem
Andy: Universal problem okay yeah because in Malaysia too I mean like the employers are expecting certain things to be you should know this by default. But no because universities they have syllabus set by the ministry and the ministry don't really necessarily care about what the industry needs
Andy: And then there's definitely a tension in the UK because on the one hand yes you want your graduates to go out and be ready for the for the job market. But I don't think it's the role of university to train someone in particular skills so they get a job with company X. Cause if company X wants that why don't they pay the money to train them
Amin: Exactly!
Andy: Because in the UK they used to be called apprenticeships which were very successful and popular, but it cost the company's money. But in the UK those numbers have since the 1950 60s gone right down and so companies on the one hand sort of want something they're not really investing. If you work out how much money the UK invests in research and development, it's much lower than many other competitive countries,
Amin: Right, so it takes two to tango I mean like the government has um prepped the students to be ready, theoretically what they need at the University, but the industry needs to play the role as well then you get the win-win situation for both. I can see that
Andy: I think that again that's an almost a cultural change of the last 50 odd years that the companies now much more under themselves Under Pressure to make you know a profit quarter or whatever and yeah why invest in these young people if they train them, they go work with another company? That's a bad investment
Amin: That’s the loyalty thing, I mean like if you are in a good place
Andy: But it's also um I think uh it's for the community. You're investing in young people not just for your company but for the good of the community, for the country that's not the way that many companies work.
Amin: That’s the bigger picture.
Andy: Yeah, but companies just look at their bottom line.
Amin: And I suppose not many industries see these.
Andy: They don't see that, they don't see that.
Amin: They want they want quick profit. Okay I find it I don't know whether this happens in the UK or not in in Malaysia, the common complaints that we get from the fresh graduate when we do the alumni survey, all jobs need the working experience at least one year two year. I mean like, it's fresh graduates, I mean where on Earth you gonna to get the experience two years.
Andy: It's not going to happen right.
Amin: So yeah I think that's silly yeah.
Andy: And also I mean again we have much more PhD students than undergraduates is that although we don't train them for particular jobs. A number of the skills they have are actually really really useful. But the companies themselves perhaps don't recognise that. So I remember one of my PhD students did a placement two months with a company and…
Amin: do I know? (Laughed)
Andy: It's quite a small company and she produced an Excel chart for them. And they thought she was a wizard (laughed). Right, an Excel chart this is something so basic. And again I know British companies more than others are that they're awareness of technology and what it can do it is really narrow really lacking.
Amin: I think it's getting big now the AI awareness.
Andy: AI but they don't really understand what it means.
Amin: In Malaysia now there is a movement now. The the government is asking everybody to undertake a short module. And this is going to be released every 4 months also. Oh have you taken everybody? (Laughed) Right okay just a final bit for this education section. So how many years have you been teaching?
Andy: Oh too many. I mean I actually started teaching when I was a PhD student.
Amin: Right, so that was in the ' 80s?
Andy: That's the 88/ 89.
Amin: Right right.
Andy: How long is that?
Amin: That's 30 over years 40 years almost 40 years.
Andy: Very long time
Amin: Right so, students in the past, student in the present even though they are learning the same plant science thing. How are they?
Andy: Again I think have be very careful about making…
Amin: In terms of enthusiasm, participation…
Andy: Again there's some who are absolutely fantastic really motivated engaged others not, which is all that's absolutely fine. You go to university to find out what it is you want to do, and there's no need to enjoy all the courses. I think as we've discussed before. I think there's been certainly again from the UK much more a tendency for passing exams as in the question. What do I need to do to get a first, what is the right answer for this question and at a low level that's fine. There are as we know right or wrong answers you need to know some facts, factual things. But by the end of a university course, you should have gone beyond that you need to have that critical thinking, some imagination and Innovation and that's I think where a lot of the students do struggle and again that probably reflect the teaching in the UK. I have friends who are were teachers and it is very much you do this you learn that this is the answer you'll get a A star grade you get top grade it doesn't require a lot of thoughts
Amin: So you're saying that the present students, they are more like exam oriented.
Andy: Very very exam orientated. Absolut, I mean we were when we were younger but it seems…
Amin: Exam always there.
Andy: They seem to be under even more pressure now. To get the really top grade and also the way that things are marked are very standardised which is sort of good. I mean it's fair that means that there becomes this is the right answer that's the wrong answer and sometimes really bright people they come up with an answer which is oh…
Amin: Oh right right I’ve got that. That's a good idea many times with the students.
Andy: But that's a wrong answer (Laughed). But that's not to… but it goes against people always thinking the same way and that's bad actually.
Amin: Right yeah okay. It's true because I got my answer sheet yeah and some student, they kind of thinking outside the galaxy…
Andy: Outside the box, lateral thinking and that was, I was always encouraged to do that. That was very much a thing to do lateral thinking not just to give the simple answer but can you think around the question. And we don't really have the time to do that now because this one class sizes are bigger.
Amin: Right how many students do you usually have in a class?
Andy: It depend, I mean in the in the first year classes there's several hundreds and these are…
Amin: Hundreds! Listen to hundreds is that's a true definition of lecture theatre.
Andy: I mean by the time you get to Advanced undergraduate, third year maybe at 20 30 40. That's not so bad but certainly again when I was going to University, small class thinking or even really one-on-one teaching happened and that doesn't happen now where we.
Amin: And the lesson still going on even though it's only one to one.
Andy: It's like tutorials. Tutorial you have like a small group teaching we go really into depth and also you can be put (Laughed) under pressure right.
Amin: All the attention to you.
Andy: All attention to you that can be quite tough.
Amin: Okay right yeah a little bit about the mental health. I think this is worth to be mentioned especially after the lockdown period students I mean people in general they are behaving differently, reacting differently.
Andy: This is, I know it's UK but also when I travel around to other countries as well. Yeah mental health issues have clearly risen over the last number of years. It's not, I think it was happening already before COVID but I think COVID has made it even worse.
Amin: Amplified it.
Andy: We're not… Again we thought about this one second, we're not totally sure what the causes are but they're real. And again that has an effect on the poor students they often quite they struggle and we're never quite... We don't think it's us actually. We don't think it's the university per se it's much more the environment that they live in. Again sounding very old very much comparing yourself with other people online people having a better life than you and also just perhaps spending less time with people and more time in a virtual sort of environment.
Amin: Yeah, you don't go to lecture because you got the record recordings there.
Andy: Which is great that's but at the same time…
Amin: A less move movement.
Andy: Less engagement
Amin: Yeah less engagement, less engagement
Andy: That's not the only reason but it's a real problem I think it's. I don't know what it's like in Malaysia but certainly in in Europe and North America, it's a problem that's increasing and universities spend a lot of time and money to try and help the students.
Amin: How does the University help student?
Andy: So the Student Union has a whole a set of people basically employed to advise students that are a fantastic job. Sometimes they have to be referred to medical help and again with the state of the Health Service that becomes increasingly difficult because there just so many.
Amin: And these people are they medical or just like a…
Andy: No they're trained. Yeah again once upon a time when I was younger. The academic also played a role in advising people and now we just have to be much more careful if we think someone has say for example a mental health issue, we are directing them within the university to people who are trained to advise them. To counsel them. Because that's not something we should do at all. We're not trying to do that.
Amin: You might say the wrong things.
Andy: Say the wrong thing. That just… again first it's very sad the students are like that. It obviously takes up a lot of time and effort and resource on the university.
Amin: So based on experience, after you have undertaken these efforts, are the student getting better.
Andy: So some… I don't know enough I'm not an expert in that area I think some some do, some again people are tough… they always tougher than you think.
Amin: Resilient.
Andy: There's some students who just go through really tough times and get through. Some sort of drop out and some just make it through but I'm not sure. They still have problems at the end I think.
Amin: Right right right okay. Yeah, the reason I want this to be open, I don't think that's only happened in Andy’s University even in UPM I mean… I got um you know, marking the exam, there is so many speeches in there
Andy: Yeah really.
Amin: Instead of answering the question they are making some kind of comment, sometimes kind of drawing. So, I wonder. It's not like I want to punish the students. I'm like in the process to understand right and this happens not with the final year student it's actually with the first-year semester. I mean they're still young still early.
Andy: I mean that's again if so we have tutorial groups which I suppose now about eight people and Once Upon a Time when I started teaching properly you might have say maybe one of those students on average would have a problem at some time in the year. Now it's two or three and this is like first week of semester right.
Amin: Is it contagious?
Andy: That's a good question I'm never quite sure as in if students do notice before
Amin: Before this they don't want to show it.
Andy: Before this everyone kept it in and that's also not good keeping to yourself but sometimes you get impression that if you get the impression oh my gosh lots of people are having problems. Perhaps I've got a problem it's sort of it know sounds too crazy, but I think people want to be part of a group.
Amin: Yeah, otherwise you're missing out again.
Andy: We're missing out again and I've got a problem. Is it a bad problem. They're 18 years old, they are quite young.
Amin: Between the male and female student are they about the same?
Andy: I think same I mean probably males still are a bit more contained and don't talk about it so much.
Amin: It's not very very um.
Andy: I think there's still a difference between the two um but it's so yeah it is on the one hand people are being more open. That's great but I still I get some extent that again they're 17 18 they haven't had so much experience of life.
Amin: They shouldn't
Andy: They see problems which perhaps, I think yeah that's unfortunate but worst things are going to happen in your life.
Amin: Life is tough.
Andy: Life is tough and so they see, and they think this for them it's a real big problem and it's really difficult. Then to say don't worry.
Amin: So, it's a bit tricky uh you want to say life is tough but you don't want to sound
Andy: But at some point, we need to be empathic, show empathy at the same time have our feet on the ground that's happened at the moment you feel bad about it but I think in 10 years’ time you look back and compare to other things that are going to happen in your life.
Amin: Remember some of the uh girls students the female students asking for extension for the assignment. I mean like.
Andy: Oh, we have that yes.
Amin: I can give to you but what is your reason for taking it I mean like that's not fair for the rest of the class who struggle to meet the deadline.
Andy: Yeah, and that I feel uncomfortable because by being kind to one person you might end up being actually unkind to the others who have struggle or unfair unkind unfair and sometimes worry whether we get that balance right. Because your want to help people but by helping someone the other.
Amin: You want to help. I can understand some people are late bloomers they need a bit extra time to reach there.
Andy: Right right.
Amin: Okay all right so that's about the education. So finally, actually the Sun is setting. I don't want any mosquito to come. Although in Singapore it is say that no mosquito.
Andy: That's what they told me.
Amin: Mosquito listen to The Authority you're not allowed to be here. About plant science so um there are many disciplines in plant science which one do you think about strongest you feel about the strongest
Andy: I mean obviously on my background it's art developmental biology.
Amin: Has it been that way since the beginning I mean like from developmental biology.
Andy: I mean I've certainly always more in molecular and cellular side.
Amin: Right.
Andy: So I must admit as undergraduate at University. I avoided all the ecology lectures I just. I shouldn't say this.
Amin: No comment on that uh but um yeah okay that’s humanize. Humans being human.
Andy: That's my problem.
Amin: No no. I avoid certain things too but when it's important, I mean like, you know what, just do it. I just do it. All right. Okay, so developmental biology uh I think you noticed some uh a number of people do not quite understand what is it exactly?
Andy: So, I mean it's basically about the plants and animals.
Amin: Yeah, we're talking about plants.
Andy: Yeah, it's the whole of biology that every single plant every single person started life as a single cell.
Amin: Yes, single cell.
Andy: And then from that there's been a program which has led to every single plant that you can see around here looking like it does and functioning like it does and none of the plants is exactly the same.
Amin: True.
Andy: They're all very slightly different like we're all different but nevertheless they still
are identifiable yeah and they function so how does that happen yeah that that's the big question.
Amin: This encoded information.
Andy: It's encoded in the DNA but of course the nice thing or the interesting about plants is that the environment also interacts with that. So depending on where you grow your plant, it will look slightly different. There's more light, less light which is very different from animals where generally a rabbit will always look like a rabbit no matter what you do to it. There a really nasty.
Amin: Some rabbit can change colour.
Andy: But still it's got the same number of ears. Yeah, a plant will have different number of leaves it have different branches it has different root structure it will grow higher it will grow sideways.
Amin: From far when you look at the plant there, you're going to call it a palm.
Andy: It's a palm.
Amin: You're not going to call it a banana plant. No that's got the characteristic to it.
Andy: But that plant is still different from the one next door.
Amin: Exactly.
Andy: It’s not exactly the same.
Amin: Actually, all of them are palms there. Yeah, but they're all different.
Andy: But they all came from a single cell.
Amin: Yeah, come from single cell.
Andy: And with a more or less the same DNA.
Amin: That's an interesting bit.
Andy: How does that happen?
Amin: Yeah. Environmental factor G by E factor.
Andy: It's very reproducible right. It's very robust.
Amin: Right right.
Andy: And yet we live in a very complex world so it's I think that's the thing that's always been very um yeah exciting.
Amin: Do you think it's the environmental factors can have a long-lasting effect on the developmental offspring?
Andy: That is epigenetics. So, this is the think of epigenetics, the idea that the environment can alter the structure of the DNA, not the code, but the structure of the DNA. And there's still actually quite some discussion in the literature about certainly can happen. It affects how the plant works during its own lifetime. How much that can be transferred from generation to generation which is almost a bit like something called Lamarckism. The idea was that the animals or organisms could change their traits depending on the environment and then pass it on to their offspring, so it sounds a bit like Lamarckism. So as far as I understand it's not my area of speciality there, it can happen. But to what extent it's a normal and uh process I think that's still open to discussion.
Amin: Right so you're saying that if the environment has definitely changed, the information is passed down to the children and then the children is experiencing this.
Andy: They will be like prepared for that new environment because the DNA itself is prepared to express or repress particular genes under those environmental condition.
Amin: And this is a form of evolution perhaps?
Andy: It's not, it's not changing the DNA sequence. It's not evolution as such. Evolution would be a change in the DNA sequence. This is more how the DNA essentially stays the same, but how that DNA is expressed or changes.
Amin: So, the sequence is the same but the expression.
Andy: Yeah, there's modification of the DNA and that chemical modification alters. For example, methylation and the whole very complicated set of rules.
Amin: Right. There sounds like an endless possibility there.
Andy: And that's the challenge in that area, that the combinations are immense and therefore correlations that's already straightforward to do, but correlation doesn't necessary mean.
Amin-Andy: Causation.
Amin: I like that.
Andy: So therefore, to actually manipulate in a very precise way what gets say methylated or not methylated, that becomes much more complex, especially since it's often do, not with a sequence of the protein encoded by DNA but it's by the regulation of expression
Amin: The transcription factors active it
Andy: And those things can act at a very long distance, so you can have a change of the modification of the DNA here which affects the expression of a gene here.
Amin: Yeah, and something in between.
Andy: But if you think about the number of combinations and the way that DNA actually is a three-dimensional structure, so that if you wrap DNA together something over here, actually ends up quite close to something here.
Amin: Right so the proximity it's not like a long string.
Andy: Your chromosomes are not in a long string. They're wrapped up very tightly and it's really fascinating and my area of speciality, but there's a lot of interest of work over the last decade.
Amin: Right so many more questions remain unanswered.
Andy: Absolutely.
Amin: So many opportunities to do science.
Andy: Absolutely
Amin: Yeah. Finally, how do you think um the developmental science can be of benefit to agriculture because the truth is because I've been in faculty of Agriculture. People don't really care about all these sciences happening in the lab. They just want to go straight to the farm. You know, doing that without having this fundamental understanding. Yeah, how do you think that can be of any help?
Andy: I mean if you look at the crop plants that we have today, I mean none of them are wild.
Amin: Highly domesticated
Andy: And that domestication has indirectly been very often by changing the development of the plant.
Amin: The shape.
Andy: I mean you mentioned example maize a classical one.
Amin: Yeah, the teosinte and you got a corn cob the regular one.
Andy: And so that so if you look at ancient mazes called teosinte, there's only I think a very limited number of mutations which change the development of the plant, so you go from a corn cob with maybe five or six really miserable seeds to maize today, which is about the most productive and I think one of the most valuable crops on the planet.
Amin: Probably that was enough for the people in the past.
Andy: Yeah, I mean that was done by breeding and of course that took many hundreds of years for them to do that but imagine if you understood exactly how that could happen with other plants. Are there other things that we could do to select or create or engineer the plants to have or make those changes.
Amin: That's grains the example. Maybe you can give one example pertaining to leaf.
Andy: A leaf, yeah. I mean so again it depends on uh again one area from our own research is we understand that the structure of a leaf, so you all learn this in in your basic plant anatomy textbook stuff about palisade and spongy mesophyll and epidermis and stomata. But the question is for example if we're say linked with climate change, yeah uh we know that CO2 levels are rising and hopefully they'll tail off but they're going to keep on rising for a bit.
Amin: I think it's going to keep on going up.
Andy: And all the leaves that we have now in our crop plants were bred really in the 1960s and 70s during the green revolution so for a climate which has maybe 300 ppm 360 whereas we're now 400 500 600 yeah. And so is that structure of the leaf that we have now is it optimal for a future where we have double amount of CO2.
Amin: Right and so we should be thinking about making climate ready, architecture, biochemistry.
Andy: Climate ready, architecture, biochemistry. Mean there's a whole load of things that one could do and because to breed a crop takes decades it takes a long time. If we could understand how a plant is made or leaf is made, perhaps we could work with the breeders to say, this is the sort of structure you want to breed now, so that the crops in 20 30 years can cope or cope better with environment that we're going to be facing. So I think that’s where we could be going.
Amin: I mean that's the understanding because people usually go to the end, the yield without paying attention to the leaf structure. I mean like, before you get the yield these are the manufacturing.
Andy: Absorb the light, losing the water there's a whole, the whole vegetative structure is that where the energy eventually is going to come for the stuff that you eat.
Amin: This kind of breeding, can we call it micro breeding. Because we are um breed for maybe a thinner cell wall perhaps.
Andy: Yeah, it's very targeted breeding. I suppose in normal breeding you actually bring whole genomes together and you're looking on one particular trait, but what else is happening, you're not controlling whatsoever and perhaps there are more subtle things we can do by targeting which will also lead to improvements.
Amin: Yeah, and this is where the crisper.
Andy: And that's where you have things like modern genetics, so gene editing and so on that can come in.
Amin: So, suppose that we have identified a number of genes, this is the one responsible for assimilation, we just overexpress it just this one.
Andy: But maybe and maybe just in a particular cell, particular leaf particular time.
Amin: Right, you get it correct specially and temporarily.
Andy: Yeah exactly.
Amin: Right okay all right. I think that's um that's quite enough for now. Okay, we don't want to leave the place. So, thank you very much Andy.
Andy: It’s been a pleasure.
Amin: All right okay. So I hope we can bring him, hopefully this is not the last time, I mean like uh, maybe we can do one more time next year.
Andy: I look forward to it.
Amin: Yeah, in a different setting right. Maybe in spring at the back we got all the dried leaves.
Andy: Or back in Singapore or Malaysia.
Amin: Or Borneo. Yeah, okay. Thank you, Andy.
Andy: Right, thanks Amin.
Timestamp
1:03 Education in the UK
2:17 More people able to pursue higher education
5:43 Influence to enter university
7:22 Dormant potential
7:46 Industry requirements
8:52 Industry Apprenticeship
10:38 Fresh graduate working experience
11:26 Technology Awareness
12:20 Experience in teaching years
12:45 Exam-oriented student
16:19 Mental Health
17:30 Less interaction with real people
17:59 University assistant in mental health issue
20:24 Mental issue on new student
23:46 Developmental Biology in Agriculture
26:50 Environmental effect on the plant development
28:32 Modification of DNA
30:18 Benefit of Developmental Science to Agriculture
32:27 Climate-ready Crop
34:03 Targeted breeding
Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 - Creative Commons
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