University fees and the demand for STEM degrees

ABSTRACT

The 2006 increase in university tuition in the UK was followed by a 3–4% reduction in the proportion of students choosing STEM degrees, due either to a change in the composition of students, or to similar students selecting away from STEM subjects. This article tests the latter hypothesis, estimating the effect of the fees for comparable students using propensity score matching on a rich set of covariates. Results suggest that the change was entirely driven by compositional changes.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational finance
• subject choice
• higher education

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• I22
• I28
• I23

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ OECD Education at a Glance 2011, available at https://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/.

² See Dearden, Fitzsimons, and Wyness (2014) for a review of evidence on participation. See Altonji, Arcidiacono, and Maurel (2016) for a review of evidence on the determinants of subject choice.

³ Author’s calculation based on data from the UK Higher Education Statistics Authority.

⁴ My thanks go to an anonymous referee who suggested this addition to the set of pre-selection controls.