The annual Recruitment and Admissions Forum took place at University of Wales Trinity St David's new SA1 Swansea Waterfront development on 27th November 2019 convened by EPC Recruitment and Admissions Committee Vice Chair, Richard Morgan.
Many thanks to UWTSD for hosting us this year (if you would like to discuss hosting in future, please contact us).
This year's forum focused on an unprecedented insight into the latest engineering student demographic profile research, led by Dr Tim Bullough who gave us a whistle-stop tour through the findings of his Royal Academy of Engineering research project into entry qualifications and engineering.
The Forum started with an intriguing plenary outlining the key findings, including that:
Female students are less likely to drop out and they get better degrees on average. Also, pre-92 universities admit proportionately more of them.
At Russell Group universities, Engineering students fro m disadvantaged areas are three times more likely to dropout than students from more privileged backgrounds. In other pre-92 universities, they’re twice as likely, but at post-92 unis, the difference almost disappears.
Foundation degree students are twice as likely to drop out as traditional year one degree entry students.
We then enjoyed a full morning data hackathon – a deep dive into engineering student demographic profile entry requirements, enrolment, continuation and outcome patterns – enabling an evidence-based look at some of the most fundamental questions facing engineering admissions today.
The afternoon welcomed a range of speakers:
Graham Howe (UWTSD) outlined the MADE project: UWTSD’s innovative provision to enable those already in industry to study level 7 and MSE Engineering programmes.
Francesca Nichols (EDT) walked us through their approach to encouraging young people into STE(A)M careers.
The EPC’s own Stella Fowler launched the results of the EPC’s annual Engineering Enrolments Survey.
Finally our closing keynote speaker Eliza Kozman (Behavioural Insights Team) outlined a behavioural and evidence-driven approach to recruitment and admissions in engineering and STEM.
All members will shortly be able to access a summary of the results of the engineering enrolments survey in the members areas of the EPC website. If you have forgotten your password, please contact us.
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