Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to help increase female representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programmes at university.

The department has taken action to increase the numbers of female students pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses at higher levels.

12 Institutes of Technology have already been established, with a further nine announced in December 2021. Institutes of Technology are designed to be prestigious, high-quality education providers, created through innovative collaborations between further education colleges, universities, and employers. They provide higher technical education and training in key STEM sectors such as digital, construction, advanced manufacturing, and engineering. This enables local people to pursue rewarding jobs and provides local businesses with the skilled workforce they need. Institutes of Technology play a key role in widening local participation in technical education and training from disadvantaged and under-represented groups, including women, which will help to increase the long-term pipeline of STEM skills.

The department has funded research programmes to investigate ways to tackle gender balance in STEM subjects. This includes the ‘Improving Gender Balance’ national research trial for physics and the ‘Gender Balance in Computing Programme’. The computing research, led by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, has now concluded and its findings will be published in due course.

There are over 350 apprenticeship standards available in STEM, many of which are at degree level and delivered by universities, such as Civil and Manufacturing Engineering apprenticeships. These offer another way for people to study STEM subjects at university, whilst also earning a salary with a STEM employer. Overall, the number of women taking STEM apprenticeships has increased to 15%, up from 11% in the 2019/20 academic year.

The proportion of female full-time undergraduate entrants studying STEM courses has also increased, from 33.6% in 2011 to 42.2% in 2021.