UK chemical engineering applications up despite national decline

Applications for UK undergraduate degree courses in chemical engineering continue to rise, despite a marked overall decline in applications for the 2012/2013 academic year.

Figures published today by the UK higher education admissions service (UCAS) show that chemical engineering applications are up by 12.4% to 11,890 compared to this time last year but overall applications are down by 7%. Applications to engineering courses as a whole are down by 1.3%. The figures are the first to be published following the introduction of higher tuition fees, which have risen to up to £9,000 per year.

IChemE Communications Manager Matt Stalker says that the latest figures suggest that students are thinking more carefully about the financial returns of their degree choice: “It seems that students are thinking very carefully about which degree choices are likely to offer best return on investment and, in such an analysis, chemical engineering comes out looking more favourable than most other disciplines.

“Chemical engineering graduates command the third highest average starting salary in the UK. That, combined with the breadth of career opportunities a degree in the subject can offer and the ever-increasing reach of IChemE’s whynotchemeng campaign, makes it little surprise that chemical engineering is bucking the trend.”