The results of the 2024 EPC Engineering Enrolments Survey are now available. Deep dive the results through our members-only Data explorer, view the slide deck, or read the summary blog below.
As always, many thanks to members who completed this year’s EPC engineering enrolments survey. The survey gives us all an early temperature check of the health of HE undergraduate and postgraduate engineering enrolments and provides early signals to changing patterns of enrolments. Our survey is the only place you can gain this insight, long before official sector enrolment data for 2024/25 is available, especially at postgraduate level. With engineering more reliant than most on overseas enrolments, all eyes are on international rectuitment and postgraduate recruitment in particular; this is insight available nowhere else.
Last year’s survey provided early signals of a contracting overseas market in First degree engineering in 2022, with an influx of overseas postgraduates continuing an upward trend since at least the 2019 survey. Considering the full sample this year, overseas postgraduate enrolments appear to be down by around 7% from the average accross the last 2 years. When asked about higher or lower enrolments specifically, respondents reported a decline in overseas enrolments across most disciplines overall.
Our surveys consistently show that Russell Group universities dominate the overseas postgraduate cohort, and our 2024 survey shows that Russell Group providers are witnessing the largest decline in Overseas students. Our survey has returned to its typical pattern of a marginal skew towards non-Russell group, which may suggest we will see an even more pronounced swing when the full HESA student data collection becomes available in 2026.
Non-Russell Group engineering appears most stable overall in 2024, which nods to the lesser reliance on overseas enrolments. The pattern of Undergraduate overseas market is similar to previous years and appears to be holding in our sample. Most disciplines report increases in Home enrolments since last year. But with a larger Russell group increase in home students compensating for the starker overseas decline, this is one to watch.
These results and trends by discipline are now showcased in our amazing Data explorer service which provides you, our members, the opportunity to access and explore the findings through dynamic and flexible data visualisations. Using this exclusive service, you can drill down and dissect results by specific cohorts, filter to your own discipline(s) of interest and view charts, tables and data personalised to your needs. And, for the first time this year, we have included the data for previous surveys. You can also view the lauch slide deck and the lauch webinar recording (see Event recording tab).
Please remember that this is a survey – not a data collection – but with around half of EPC member providers submitting a response we celebrate coverage of c28K students accross more discrete disciplines (222) than ever before.
