Discipline Deep Dive - UK Arts & Humanities PGR

Back in April, our exploration into the current size and shape of the PGT UK Arts & Humanities audience highlighted that:

• Interest is strong from relatively stable international audiences

• The domestic audience is older than other discipline areas

• Subject popularity is stable

• Arts & Humanities has the widest variety of subject titles

So where are we at with PGR? Do these insights hold true, or does the audience shift when MA becomes PhD?

One thing’s for sure: Arts & Humanities specialisms become even more esoteric at PGR level, as our very own Dr. Mark Bennett can attest to, holder of a PhD in the travel writing scene of Gothic Literature.

For the audience insights, however, we will use our Share of Search and Pulse data to provide a detailed look at the state of the UK PGR Arts & Humanities discipline area as we enter Q3 2024.

The most recent HESA data, from the 2021/2022 academic year, shows that Arts & Humanities enrolments accounted for 17% of all PGR courses that year, placing it as the second most popular discipline area, behind Science & Engineering (36%). That is consistent with the previous two academic years as well.

However, our Share of Search data shows that over the past year Arts & Humanities has seen the largest fall in interest of all discipline areas (-4%), which has mainly come from the domestic audience (-8%). The international audience, meanwhile, are more stable with interest having slightly grown (+1%). This is concurrent with PGT, in that growth has been stronger from the international audience.

In the PGT deep dive, we focused our attentions on the international audiences that are most interested in UK Arts & Humanities due to the shifts in PGT interest that we have seen so far through 2024. In recent months, that turbulence has also become visible at PGR level.

Fortunately, the international audiences for UK PGR are looking healthy by comparison.

In Q2 2024, 45% of the Arts & Humanities international audience were made up of prospective students from Europe and Africa, two audiences that are actually more likely to seek UK institutions than at this stage last year.

The only audience with a notable fall in interest for UK institutions is South Asia (-9%) who are pivoting to the USA and Australia. However, the discipline area is somewhat shielded from this pivot because South Asia accounts for only 14% of all Arts & Humanities PGR searches — a far smaller proportion than what we see for all UK PGR discipline areas (24%).

In terms of individual countries, the USA (12%) has the largest Share of Search for UK Arts & Humanities PGR, closely followed by India (9%) and Germany (8%). By far the largest year-on-year growth also comes from Germany (+89%), not-so-closely followed by the USA (+20%) and Nigeria (+16%).

HESA data also shows us that the proportion of female Arts & Humanities enrolments has been growing – from 54% in 2019/20 to 56% in 2021/22. This female tilt is even more pronounced amongst the searching audience.

Our most recent Pulse data shows that the searching audience is around 61% female for both the domestic and international audiences. This could indicate that a slightly higher percentage of female students are interested in courses than are enrolling on them, as well as a continuation of the trend seen in HESA. Either way, like with PGT, the audience for UK Arts & Humanities PGR is predominantly female.

Similarly, like PGT, this is an older audience.

More than half (56%) of the Arts & Humanities audience are aged 35+ and the majority of those are aged 45+. In comparison to the audience for all PGR disciplines, they are 9 percentage points (pp) more likely to be 35+ and 13% more likely to be 45+.

They are also more likely to seek flexible delivery methods than the average PGR student. The Arts & Humanities audience is 8pp more likely to seek part-time opportunities and 9pp more likely to seek flexible research methods (either blended or fully remote).

As with PGT, those interested in Arts & Humanities are more likely to list Subject Interest (+9pp) as a motivation and less likely to list Career Progression (-9pp) than the average prospective PGR student. It’s worth noting that there is a divide between audiences here, too. 60% of the domestic audience listed Challenge as a motivation, compared to only 35% of the international audience. Conversely, 54% of international students listed Career Progress compared to only 29% of the domestic audience. So there is a clear divide between what is likely to motivate each audience.

In terms of concerns for seeking PGR study, there wasn’t a notable difference between the Arts & Humanities audience and the entire UK PGR audience.

There is, however, a difference within Arts & Humanities. Domestic students were more likely than internationals to list Confidence (+20pp) and Time (+15pp) as concerns, and less likely to select Cost (-15pp), though, as always, Cost is the largest area of concern for all audiences.

Again, like with PGT, this all paints the picture of Arts & Humanities being the most likely audience, at least domestically, to be mid-to-late career professionals (or potentially) retirees seeking flexible learning methods to expand their knowledge of a subject they are passionate about.

When it comes to subject interest, it seems last year’s Indiana Jones revival may have had some effect, as Archaeology sits atop the pile. Although, that being said, interest in Archaeology is slightly down this year, so perhaps it wasn’t a positive effect.

Creative Writing is the second most popular subject, though interest has also fallen there.

The largest year-on-year growth comes from Film Studies, up around +113% on last year’s interest. The bulk of that growth is from the domestic audience. Other subject areas that have seen notbale growth include Architecture (+70%), Art (+50%) and Urban Planning (+32%).

When we divide the audiences into domestic and international, Archaeology is still the most popular subject area with share of search figures of around 18% and 15% respectively. It is also the 3rd fastest growing subject for international students (+42%).

The domestic audience prefer vocational subjects such as Creative Writing, English Literature and Art, while the international audience prefer Architecture and (unsurprisingly) European Studies.

The remarkable overall growth in Architecture appears to have been driven by the domestic audience, where it is their second fastest growing specialism (after the aforementioned Film Studies). And, finally, both audiences have seen an upswing in Art interest, domestically +62% and internationally +43%.

• Share of Search for Arts & Humanities is falling domestically but stable internationally.

• The audience appears to be increasingly female.

• They are generally an older audience more likely to be motivated by passion for the subject than career focused goals.

• UK institutions appear to be becoming more appealing to the international audience.

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