Do we need more scientists? A long‐term view of patterns of participation in UK undergraduate science programmes

Abstract

This paper reports the findings from an ESRC funded study which examined patterns of participation in higher education science programmes. Using data on applications and acceptances to university, the paper describes trends in the numbers of candidates who choose to study science and science‐related degree programmes in the UK over the last two decades. Two main findings emerge. The first shows that overall the sciences have retained their share of the undergraduate population during a period in which the sector has expanded rapidly. We find no evidence of a ‘swing’ from science. Indeed it is not the case that undergraduates are not studying science, rather, it is the type of science courses they are studying which has changed. The second finding suggests that large and small‐scale initiatives to increase recruitment to the sciences have had little lasting impact on the higher education participation data.

Keywords:

• higher education
• participation
• science education

Acknowledgements

This research project was funded by the ESRC Award number RES‐22‐00‐2005. The author would like to thank Professor Robin Millar and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this paper.

Notes

1. Higher National Diploma: this is a higher education qualification which is equivalent to the first two years of an undergraduate degree.

2. Polytechnics were tertiary level institutions which differed from universities in that their focus was traditionally on vocational programmes. The 1992 Further and Higher Education Act abolished the distinction between polytechnics and universities.

3. The organisation of UCAS STEM subject groups is provided in the Appendix.

4. Clearing is a service which is offered by UCAS to help people without a university place to find a suitable vacancy. It runs annually from July to September after the usual period of recruitment has ended.

5. UCAS started assigning qualification tariff scores in 2002. Its aim is to establish equivalences between different types of qualification.

6. The G8 are a group of leading industrialised nations. This would usually also include Russia who is omitted from Table 4 because of missing data.