Discipline Deep Dive - UK Science & Engineering PGT

• Science & Engineering is now the most popular discipline area in UK PGT.

• International interest is relatively stable.

• It is a young audience with a relatively even gender split – there is greater female interest than enrolment data suggests.

• Interest is widely split across many subject areas.

The UK has a grand history of producing scientists and engineers: Newton, Darwin, Lovelace, Stephenson, Turing, and Hawking to name but a few. With such esteemed alumni, it’s no wonder there’s such high demand for postgraduate study in Science & Engineering.

In fact, in Q3 2024 it was the most popular discipline area for Masters level study in the UK, its Share of Search figure (25.8%) eclipsing that of Social Sciences (23.4%).

This preference is slightly more notable in the international audience (where it is clearly their most popular discipline area) than in the domestic audience (their second most popular). Year-on-year growth is strong from both audiences, however.

As the chart shows, Science & Engineering is not only the most popular discipline area, but it also saw the largest year-on-year growth through Q3 (along with Business & Professional) at +7% overall. We can also see that this growth is shared by both international audiences (+6%) and domestic audiences (+9% – easily the strongest growth of all discipline areas for domestic audiences).

But who exactly is it that wishes to follow in the footsteps of these distinguished scientific figures? Where do they come from? And what exactly is it that they’re seeking?

Using our Share of Search and Pulse data, we seek to answer those questions to provide a detailed look at the state of UK PGT Science & Engineering as we progress through Q4 2024.

With international interest in UK PGT having been in flux in recent months, it’s worth delving into the make-up of each audience to begin to understand how they might have been affected.

The first thing to note is that the make-up of international interest for Science & Engineering is relatively similar to the make-up of international interest for all UK PGT.

North America is the largest audience for both and accounts for 41% of all Science and Engineering searches, up from 36% of all UK PGT searches. The next largest is Asia (31%), followed by Africa (13%) and then Europe (12%). This differs slightly from the Share of Search figures that we see for each audience in all UK PGT.

We already mentioned that North American audiences account for a greater Share of Search in Science & Engineering – around 5 percentage points (pp) more. Meanwhile, Asian (-2pp) and European (-3pp) audiences both account for a slightly smaller proportion of international interest.

But what does this mean for the sustainability of the international audience?

In general, we’ve seen a trend of international audiences shifting their attentions away from the UK, with many pivoting to European destinations.

Many international audiences are slightly less likely to seek courses at UK institutions than they were a year ago, however, when we measure those shifting interests, we see that they are significantly less pronounced for the Science & Engineering discipline area.

In Q3 2024, students from South Asia were 41pp less likely to seek any PGT course at a UK institution compared to a year earlier. For Europe audiences it was -9pp and from Africa -6pp. But for Science & Engineering fields those figures are only -15pp, -1pp and -3pp respectively.

Furthermore, North American audiences and Asian audiences (outside of South Asia) actually saw year-on-year growth in interest for UK Science & Engineering during Q3.

Which all suggests that the Science & Engineering discipline area is somewhat shielded from the shifting intentions we’ve seen elsewhere.

So, we know where the international audience is coming from, but what of their demographics, course preferences and motivations?

Traditionally, STEM subjects have been thought of as less likely to attract female students. The most recent HESA data can attest to this, where in the 2022/23 academic year we saw female students account for only around 38% of all UK PGT Science & Engineering enrolments.

However, based on our Pulse data, this stereotype may not be as profound as the enrolment data would have you believe.

Here we see that interest in Science & Engineering PGT is much more evenly split by gender, with around 46% of the audience being female.

Which suggests that there is a significant section of this audience that are not progressing from initial interest to enrolment. A section that could yet be tapped into.

The Science & Engineering audience is relatively young compared to that of all UK PGT.

In total, they are about 9pp more likely to be aged under 35, and there is a more or less even split between the number of those aged 18-24 and 25-34. This combined age group, 18-34, makes up the vast majority of the total audience (77%).

These differences are dependent on which audience we are discussing, however.

In the domestic audience we see 44% aged under 25, which is 16pp more than the domestic audience for all UK PGT. The middle band is compressed here as only 24% are aged 25-34, leaving a healthy portion aged 35+ (about 32%).

By comparison, almost 80% of the international audience are under 35, with their largest age band being 25-34 (41%).

The Science & Engineering audience are more likely to seek full-time (+5pp), on campus (+8pp) study than the audience for all UK PGT. A statement which is applicable for both domestic and international audiences.

They are around 4pp more likely to list Subject interest and Earnings as motivations and around 3pp more likely to list Eligibility as a concern.

The domestic audience see a great deal of value in Masters level Science & Engineering but are far more likely to list Confidence as a concern (+11pp). Bridging this confidence gap could help improve that conversion of interest to enrolments.

The top ten most popular subjects share somewhere between 3.65% and 2.68% of the total Share of Search – that’s only 1.03% separating the most popular and the 10th most popular subject areas, meaning Science & Engineering subject area interest is much more widely spread that most discipline areas.

Speaking of the most popular subject, as of Q3 2024 it is Sport & Exercise Science which has a slightly greater Share of Search than Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering. All three of these subjects have seen a slight fall in interest since Q3 2023, however.

Conversely, subject areas that saw notable growth include Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Zoology.

There are notable differences in the interests of the domestic and international audiences. Domestically, Marine Biology and Sport & Exercise Science are the two most popular subject areas, whereas internationals seem to prefer Biotechnology, Biomedical Engineering and Molecular Biology.

This page is intended to be a snapshot of the current size and shape of UK PGT Science & Engineering audiences based on thousands of data points drawn from actively searching audiences across our platforms. If there's something else you think it should cover, something that isn't clear or something you have a question about, please let us know.

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