Research and education in analytical chemistry — industrial and academic perspectives from a survey conducted in Sweden

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TL;DR

This survey-based study from Sweden finds that analytical chemistry is widely regarded as a core chemistry discipline, yet faces a recruitment crisis: 77% of industry and 70% of academic respondents report too few applicants or applicants lacking the right skills. The techniques taught in universities generally match those used in practice, but chemometrics/statistics is taught far less (≈12%) than it is used (>40%), revealing a critical gap in analytical chemistry education.

Full summary

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**Background:** Analytical chemistry is a foundational sub-discipline of chemistry, but there is growing concern that it is losing ground to other fields and being viewed primarily as a 'tool' or 'black box' operation. In Sweden, course offerings have declined substantially — e.g., from 43.5 ECTS in 2010 to 32 ECTS in 2022 at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and from 75 ECTS in 2007 to 30 ECTS in 2022 at Lund University. Industry simultaneously reports increasing difficulty recruiting competent analytical chemists. The Analytical Chemistry Division of the Swedish Chemical Society initiated a think tank and survey to examine who analytical chemists are, what they do, whether education matches industry demand, and how the discipline is evolving.

**Methods:** Three anonymous online surveys were conducted via SurveyMonkey® during 2019–2020. Survey 1 targeted members of the Analytical Chemistry Division (response rate: 120/360, 33%). Survey 2 was a follow-up to the same group (50/360, 14%). Survey 3 targeted chemists in all other divisions of the Swedish Chemical Society (121/~2000, 6%). Post-editing removed obvious duplicates. Data are presented as 'all', 'university', and 'industry' categories. Raw data are available upon request.

**Key Results:** Responders worked primarily in industry (40% survey 1, 25% survey 2) or academia (35% survey 1, 40% survey 2). The most common education level was doctoral studies (50% survey 1, 70% survey 2); 25% held a master's degree. Examination years ranged from 1967 to 2019. Degrees came from 20 universities, most commonly Stockholm University, Uppsala University, Lund University, and Gothenburg University. Among academics, 43% had been abroad for >3 months, and collaboration projects ranged from 1–15 (typically 2–5). The most common work tasks (max 3 answers allowed) across all respondents were method development, project management, routine analysis, and teaching. Industry respondents emphasized method development, routine analysis, and project management; academics focused on teaching, fundamental research, and grant applications. Teaching occupied 11–30% of academic work hours. The most used analytical techniques over the prior 5 years were separation methods, sample preparation, mass spectrometry, and spectroscopy — the same techniques most commonly taught. A notable exception was chemometrics/statistics: used by >40% of respondents but taught by only ≈12%. In industry, 64% of respondents were expected to have broad technical knowledge versus only 6% expecting focus on a specific technology; academics were more evenly split. Regarding recruitment, 77% of industry and 70% of university respondents reported 'few applicants' or 'many applicants but few with the right skills'. When asked whether analytical chemistry is a core chemistry subject, analytical chemists largely agreed; non-analytical chemists in industry also agreed, while non-analytical chemists at universities were more divided. Free-text responses revealed that analytical chemists perceive their discipline as having 'low status' and being viewed as a 'support science', though non-analytical chemists gave somewhat more positive descriptions.

**Clinical Implications:** This study does not directly address clinical practice, but the findings have implications for biomedical and pharmaceutical research. The identified gap between chemometrics education and usage suggests that graduates entering pharmaceutical, clinical diagnostics, and biotechnology sectors may lack sufficient training in data-driven analytical approaches. The recruitment difficulties reported by 70–77% of respondents indicate a workforce shortage that could affect the quality and throughput of chemical analysis in drug development, environmental health monitoring, and clinical laboratory sciences. The study underscores the need for analytical chemistry curricula to evolve toward a more holistic, cross-disciplinary model that includes robust training in chemometrics and statistics to meet current and future societal demands.