Women engineering change

The proportion of women enrolling in university engineering courses has risen to its highest level, a new report by Engineers Australia says.

Women offered places in engineering also have higher Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks on average than their male counterparts.

The proportion of women enrolling in university engineering courses has risen to its highest level, with 17 per cent of those accepting engineering degree offers last year being female.

“The higher offer rate for young women reflects the efforts being made by the universities to encourage more young women to study engineering,” professional group Engineers Australia says in a new report.

Women also accept engineering course offers from universities at a higher rate than men.

“On average, 64.8 per cent of young men and 70.4 per cent of young women who originally applied for a place accept offers made by the universities,” says the update report on entry into university engineering courses.

The interest from young women has helped to cushion the effect of the decline in male school-leavers entering engineering.

Women offered places in engineering also have higher Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks on average than their male counterparts, with more than half the women having an ATAR over 90 compared with less than 40 per cent of men.

Last year, 8568 male school-leavers accepted an offer of a place in an engineering course, but this figure is 17.9 per cent lower than the peak of acceptances in 2012 at the height of the resources boom.

The figures are for those applying for engineering courses direct from Year 12 through university admission centres, which account for most engineering admissions.

A rise in direct applications into engineering courses, typically from those who have taken a gap year from school, or entering as mature-age students, has partially offset the decline in school-leavers choosing the profession.

But the number of students enrolling in engineering courses is falling. Last year 13,338 students were accepted, less than in 2013.

The report says, since 2012, the engineering labour market “had endured strenuous adjustment involving lower labour force participation, higher unemployment and fewer people with engineering qualifications working in engineering”.

It also says the decline in school students studying high-level maths and science could be influencing the decline in Year 12 students choosing engineering.