The year of filling vacancies threat

Engineering courses cannot recruit. A campaign to promote engineering as exciting, relevant and remunerative was launched last week.

A sharp decline in the number of students taking engineering and technology courses in recent years could result in a shortage of applicants for graduate engineering jobs next year.

That is the fear of Mary Harris, director general of the Year of Engineering Success, which intends to raise public awareness and understanding of engineering.

The number of UK students who accepted places in first degree engineering and technology courses has declined from a high of 21,535 in 1993 to 19,156 in 1994 and 17,645 last year, an 18 per cent drop.

Higher National Diploma enrolments have also slid from 3,883 in 1993 to 2,776 in 1994 and 2,603 last year, down 33 per cent.

Dr Harris said the drop-out rate from degree courses could be as high as 30 per cent, and more than 25 per cent of graduates took jobs in the City. She said there was a need for about 30,000 new graduates each year in engineering.

Stephen Hodell, dean of engineering at the University of the West of England, said falling enrolments was a major concern and the result of fewer students taking maths and physics A levels.

Because the subjects were regarded as "difficult", he suspected some schools, in a bid to protect their league table place, were guiding marginal students away from maths and physics.

Peter Goodhew, dean of engineering at the University of Liverpool, said the pool of potential school-leaver applicants was getting smaller and that it was becoming more difficult to recruit students.

"Over the last five years, we've seen an increase in the number of BTec entrants I there are more access routes available and we've accepted such entrants because they make up the shortfall," he said.

According to Professor Hodell, the oversupply of places meant engineering was the course of last resort for students with lower A-level results. "There are universities offering degrees to people with two Es at the moment - it's not difficult with two Es to find a BEng place."

While fully supporting the Year of Engineering Success initiative, Professor Hodell said engineering careers had to become more attractive to young people.

Professor Goodhew said the "accurate" perception that engineering was "hard work" meant universities should examine students' workload. "We need to look closely at our syllabi to see whether we can't make it less like hard work - the difference between studying engineering and English shouldn't be quite so glaring," he said.