This year’s EAN Access and Admissions Forum brings together leaders, policymakers, and higher education specialists to tackle one of the sector’s most pressing questions: how to secure the financial sustainability of engineering education. With demand for skilled engineers soaring and universities feeling the squeeze, this event will explore how institutions can balance mission and money, all while navigating a shifting landscape of policy, funding, and recruitment.
Here’s the crunch: a structural £8k annual underfunding per domestic engineering student means that simply enrolling more students doesn’t spread costs—it deepens the deficit. In fact, every additional home student increases losses. In response, universities have recently been flatlining recruitment, even in a booming applicant market. The stakes are high: course closures, departmental instability, and financial unpredictability loom, with access, admissions, and recruitment just part of the wider puzzle. Under the current funding model, international student fees are often the only viable cross-subsidy.
So, what does this mean for recruitment forecasts and risk planning? How should admissions strategies evolve when numbers don’t guarantee sustainability? At the Forum, we’ll spotlight emerging opportunities and challenges in recruitment and marketing, examine the role of international students — not just as learners but as financial lifelines — and explore how the domestic/international balance shapes entry all things access and admissions.
We’ll also hear from the Chair of the MAC Advisory Committee on navigating visa and immigration policies. How can government policy recognise international engineering students as strategic assets and a crucial part of the UK’s future skilled workforce? What steps are universities taking to strengthen international recruitment in engineering?
Meanwhile, with the surge in applications from 18-year-olds, what happens when that population drops and all-age participation remains flat? Could the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) be a game-changer for engineering? With LLE funding for Level 6 “priority subject” modules kicking in from January 2027, how do we reimagine engineering degrees not built for modular study? How will credit transfer across providers—especially on accredited pathways—reshape admissions and access? The Executive Director of the Lifelong Education Institute will help us chart the path forward.
These are just a few of the critical policy issues we’ll link directly to practice at our Annual Forum. Join us at the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering (LIHE) on 5th November to stay ahead.
#NotJustForAdmissionsTutors
More information.
