Stem graduates can make more money in the private sector, so are entitled to ask why they should help save the state from one of its self-inflicted disasters.
Recent changes in recruitment have made things even worse, and almost seemed designed to keep them away. A new situational judgement (CSJT) test has been introduced, an exercise which invites the candidate to defuse hypothetical workplace dramas. You can try it yourself online.
One distinguished Cambridge masters graduate I know did just that, and found himself in the bottom 5pc of scores. “I took it again several times, with a top psychologist, and we still came in the lowest 15pc.”
“These tests value soft skills over hard ones, including numerical ones,” Jordan Urban, of the Institute for Government, points out. “It’s an obvious barrier to maths and engineering types,” reckons another Westminster researcher.
The MoD has lost discrimination cases brought by outstanding civil servants who were thwarted by such tests, but Whitehall perseveres.
Not surprisingly then, first-preference applications to the science and engineering Fast Stream tracks crashed between 2020 and 2023, down 78pc – twice the fall seen in humanities applications.
The head of the Civil Service, Simon Case, said last year that half of the Fast Stream intake are Stem graduates. But insiders say it’s only been able to claim that by moving the goalposts.
“They have reached it by expanding the definition of Stem to include economics, and some other kind of humanity or social science degree which has quantitative elements to it,” one source tells me.
This revelation alone should be a minor scandal.
Another trick Whitehall likes is embracing more amorphous skills like “digital”, rather than engineering, computer science and maths, all of which require rigour and deep knowledge.
“They’ve done one-day courses in AI, or Big Data,” scoffs one Whitehall source, “so of course they are all experts now.”
The rise and fall of the Government Digital Service illustrates the peril of taking self-styled digital wizards at face value. For a few years it blazed a trail in Whitehall, but ultimately over-promised and under-delivered, and had to hire hundreds of contractors to do the hard graft.
The labels “builder” and “maker” are beginning to work the same way: self-certifications that sound impressive, but mean little.
And for all his success in Silicon Valley, it must be noted that Thiel himself holds a law degree. No wonder technical types, scientists and mathematicians suspect a conspiracy to keep them out.