ChemEng student numbers rise again in the UK

THE number of students starting UK chemical engineering courses is up 11% after applications leapt 17% in 2024.

Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) show that 2,685 students accepted places on UK chemical, process and energy engineering courses in 2024, up from 2,425 in 2023. It’s the second consecutive year of growth following year-on-year declines in 2021 and 2022.

It’s the same pattern for applications, which were up 6% in 2023 and jumped 17% in 2024.

Jo Cox, head of young people’s and student engagement at IChemE, said: “We are delighted to see this increase in applications and offers, which clearly demonstrates the combined impact of the DiscoverChemEng campaign, the schools engagement work of many IChemE members, and the outreach activities of the universities themselves, particularly through their widening participation schemes.”

The proportion of female students joining chemical engineering is also on the rise, up to 31% from 25% in 2020, though the dataset is incomplete as it excludes students who chose not to identify their gender.

Chemical engineering outperformed engineering in general. Students joining all “engineering and technology” courses, as they are classified by UCAS, were up 9% in 2024 following a 1% dip in 2023.

Calls for action on engineering education

Despite the positive trends, more is needed to increase engineering numbers.

EngineeringUK has warned that the UK is facing significant skills shortages. Engineering roles make up 25% of UK job vacancies, despite only 19% of the workforce being employed in the sector. And this demand is only expected to rise with the UK Climate Change Committee estimating that as many as 725,000 new jobs could be created by 2030 to support the country’s transition to net zero.

Furthermore, EngineeringUK could only cautiously welcome news that the number of people taking up engineering-related apprenticeships had risen 1.6% in 2023/24, noting that the figures are down 6.3% on pre-pandemic levels.

In February, the Engineering Professors Council (EPC) urged government to give another £900m (US$1.2bn) in funding support for university engineering courses. It warned that without intervention universities might choose to close expensive courses, putting UK industries at greater risk.

EPC estimates that universities lose around £7,600 per domestic engineering student. This is because engineering courses are relatively expensive to teach due to the long contact hours, and the expensive facilities, materials, and software needed. It said government should give engineering courses another £750m, roughly doubling the funding for engineering through the so-called strategic priorities grant for high-cost courses. And it has asked for another £150m to support very high-cost and at-risk subjects including chemical engineering, physics, and chemistry.