STEM Subjects: Higher Education

(asked on 18th January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate the Government has made of the number of students studying STEM courses at undergraduate level.


Answered by
Sam Gyimah Portrait
Sam Gyimah
This question was answered on 26th January 2018

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes statistics on students studying at UK Higher Education Institutions. The latest statistics refer to the academic year 2016/17 and can be found at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/11-01-2018/sfr247-higher-education-student-statistics.

In 2016/17, there were 826,260 enrolments on undergraduate courses in STEM subjects. Of these, 742,485 students were studying for a first degree, and a further 83,775 were studying for another undergraduate qualification. The number of undergraduates in STEM subjects increased by 1.4% between 2015/16 and 2016/17.

Notes

  • Counts are on the basis of full-person-equivalents. Where a student is studying more than one subject, they are apportioned between the subjects that make up their course;
  • STEM subjects are defined by HESA as subject groups A to K under the JACS3 classification: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/jacs/jacs3-detailed;
  • Figures rounded to nearest five.
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