Written Evidence Submitted by

Dr Patrick White, University of Leicester and Professor Emma Smith, University of Warwick

(DIV0056)

Dr Patrick White is Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Communication and Sociology at the University of Leicester. His research focuses on employment trajectories and the career choice process and, with Emma Smith, has researched and written extensively about the graduate STEM labour market. Professor Emma Smith is Head of the Department of Education Studies at the University of Warwick. She is a chemistry graduate and former science teacher who is interested in the relationship between school and university science education and the wider STEM skills shortage debate both in the UK and the US.

This document summarises the findings of research into the immediate and long-term employment trajectories of STEM graduates in the UK, part of which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The research used data from five large-scale secondary data sets, some of which had never been previously used to look at STEM careers. Combining the results from the analysis of these different data sets allowed us to provide a unique overview of the STEM labour market in the early 21st Century.

The findings reported below were based on the analysis of the following data sets:

UCAS application and admissions data
HESA First Destinations survey data
Annual Population Survey (including Labour Force Survey data)
1958 National Child Development Study
1970 British Cohort Study

While most existing research in the area focuses on the immediate destinations of STEM graduates, our research was unusual in examining both these immediate destinations, and the longer-term career outcomes of workers who are now well into middle age. The findings relating to diversity are summarised below.

Key findings 1: Gender

Participation in undergraduate degrees

Traditional gendered patterns of participation in STEM subjects at university has continued despite decades of expansion in higher education

UCAS data show that despite the increases in participation in undergraduate degrees seen throughout the 1990s and in the early 21st Century, enrolment in most ‘strategically important and vulnerable’ (SIV) STEM subjects was flat in absolute terms, and the proportion of undergraduates studying these subjects actually declined in relative terms. Although the proportion of female STEM students increased, these increases were largely in allied medical sciences (such as nursing). Women continue to be over-represented in the biological sciences but are still greatly under-represented in areas such as the engineering sciences.

Employment shortly after graduating

Female STEM graduates have lower rates of immediate post-degree graduate employment regardless of subject studied, but male-dominated STEM subjects showed a greater gender disparity

HESA data shows that a slightly lower proportion of female STEM graduates enter graduate-level employment immediately within six months of finishing their degree, but that there were much larger differences between STEM subjects. Male-dominated degrees, such as engineering, had much higher levels of immediate graduate-level employment (at around 70%) compared to STEM subjects such as the biological sciences (at 50%) where the majority of students are female.

Female STEM graduates and those graduating from female-dominated subjects were less likely to find HS STEM positions after graduation, but the gender differences were also largest in male-dominated subjects

Analysis of HESA data also shows that female STEM graduates were considerably less likely to enter highly-skilled (HS) STEM jobs in the six months after graduation than their male peers. Between 2000 and 2010, around one-third of male STEM graduates found immediate post-degree jobs in HS STEM positions, compared to only around 20% of female STEM graduates. As with graduate-level employment, there was also substantial variation between STEM subjects. The male-dominated STEM subjects performed best according to this measure but gender gaps were also largest in these male dominated subjects. Whereas around 15% of graduates in the biological sciences found HS STEM jobs shortly after graduating – and there was little difference between males and females – in 2010/11 around two-thirds of male engineering graduates were employed in these roles compared to only 44% of their female peers.

Female STEM graduates were much less likely to work in managerial and professional roles or work as ICT or engineering professionals after graduating, but much more likely to have associate professional jobs in healthcare

After graduating, female STEM graduates were roughly half as likely as males to work in managerial (SOC1) roles and considerably less likely to work in professional (SOC2) positions (by a ratio of 3:4). HESA data show that those female STEM graduates who do hold professional roles were much more likely than males to be working as health professionals and much less likely to be employed as ICT or engineering professionals (by a factor of 10 in some years). These differences largely reflect their choice of degree subject. Female STEM graduates were also much more likely to work in associate professional positions in the medical and health sector: in some years they were nine times more likely than males to work in these roles.

Employment patterns in the wider workforce

Female STEM graduates were under-represented in management roles, particularly in science and industry, and were less likely to work in HS STEM jobs

Annual Population Survey (APS) data on the adult workforce showed that the vast majority of STEM graduates end up in graduate-level employment regardless of gender, with males only having a very slight advantage. Female STEM graduates were less likely to work in management roles, and were particularly under-represented in production manager roles, which are more closely tied to science and industry. For the years 2004-2010, for example, they were seven times less likely to work in such positions. In the same period only 32% of employed female STEM graduates worked in HS STEM jobs compared with 55% of comparable males.

Patterns of gender inequality among STEM graduates show little change over time

The patterns observed in the APS data, that pertain to the whole of the working age population, were very similar to those in the HESA data that included only recent graduates. Gendered disparities in the proportion of male and female STEM graduates working in managerial and HS STEM positions does not appear to be changing between cohorts, with similar patterns observed between age groups within the working population. The expansion of undergraduate participation in higher education certainly does not appear to have impacted on these continued inequalities, and neither do changing views of gender roles seem to have affected broad patterns of labour market participation.

Gender gaps in management roles decline slightly over the lifecourse but differences in HS STEM employment are undiminished

Data from the cohort studies (NCDS and BCS70) showed how STEM graduates’ careers changed over the course of their working lives. Male STEM graduates were consistently more likely to be in a HS STEM position at any point between the ages of 26 and 42. At age 30, for example 61% of male but only 39% of female STEM graduates worked in HS STEM jobs. Although there was attrition from HS STEM jobs for both groups, the gap between males and females did not diminish as their careers progressed. The gap between the proportions of males and females in managerial roles declined slightly as cohort members got older with a 3:2 difference remaining at age 42. The small gap in professional employment that existed at age 26 had disappeared by age 38 but female STEM graduates remained much more likely to work in associate professional positions throughout their careers.

Female graduates are generally successful but a degree in a STEM subject is not necessarily an advantage: STEM degrees can disadvantage women but always advantage men

While acknowledging that there are gendered disparities between the career outcomes of male and female STEM graduates, it is important to recognise that female graduates are generally very successful. Over 80% of all graduates worked in graduate-level jobs, for example, and there was only a small difference between men and women.

The differences between the careers of men and women were far greater when STEM-related outcomes are considered compared to more general measures. Having a degree in a STEM subject confers very little advantage to female graduates in terms of gaining graduate-level employment, particularly over the long term, and is actually disadvantageous in terms of SOC1-2 employment. While a larger proportion of male STEM graduates work in managerial or professional positions compared to their peers with non-STEM degrees, the opposite is true for female STEM graduates. Whereas a STEM degree is always, if only slightly, advantageous for men, this is not always the case for women.

Key findings 2:

Higher education and social background

Most HS STEM workers do not have a degree

Analysis of APS data showed that over half the HS STEM workforce were non-graduates. Although workers in younger age groups were slightly more likely to be graduates than their older peers, the differences between age groups were not as large as would be expected given the expansion of undergraduate education over the previous 30 years. The current policy focus on STEM graduates risks overlooking the main source of HS STEM workers: those without degrees. Given the social background of undergraduates, this overlooked group will reflect the current and historical inequalities in access to higher education, and be disproportionately made up of people from working class families and from particular ethnic backgrounds that are under-represented in higher education.

Graduates from ‘elite’ higher education institutions are more likely to enter HS STEM jobs shortly after graduation

HESA data showed that although there were relatively small differences in the likelihood of students from different types of HEI gaining graduate-level employment, but substantial differences in the proportions entering HS STEM jobs shortly after finishing their degree. This was the case regardless of whether they graduated with degrees in STEM or non-STEM subjects. Between 2002/3 and 2010/11, for example, graduates from Russell Group universities were roughly twice as likely as those studying at University Alliance/Million+ institutions to enter HS STEM employment.

Given that around 25% of students at Russell Group universities were educated in the private sector compared to only 4% of those at University Alliance/Million+ institutions, this disparity in employment outcomes also reflects wider inequalities stemming from the social backgrounds of students. It is also well-known that the proportion of students from minority ethnic backgrounds is much higher in UA/M+ universities than in the RG, meaning that this difference also reflects ethnic and racial inequalities.

Summary and conclusions

Nearly half a century of initiatives to increase the participation of women in STEM subjects at university has done very little to change the historically gendered patterns of over- and under-representation in particular subjects. These gendered patterns of participation in different subjects lead to further inequalities in the labour market in terms of participation in HS STEM jobs in particular, but also in management positions in the industry.

Historical data suggest that while studying science usually conveys an advantage for men, this is not always the case for women. Women are much more likely to work in associate professional positions, and to take on traditionally-gendered work roles, regardless of the degree subject they study. This changes little over the course of their careers.

Given that female graduates are very successful in gaining graduate-level and professional employment in the medium term, it could be argued that there is little incentive for them to choose STEM subjects over other degrees. As we have argued elsewhere, it may be the case that the STEM sector needs women much more than women need jobs in STEM.

One of our most unexpected, but important, findings was that most HS STEM workers do not have degrees. The recent, and historical, policy focus has been on graduates, meaning that the most important group in terms of the labour market has received much less attention. Leaving aside issues of effectiveness, this focus has privileged the already advantaged groups that are traditionally over-represented in the undergraduate population.

The other area where existing social and economic privilege is evident is the link between the status of the university that students attend and the likelihood of them working in a HS STEM job. While the data we used only allowed us to examine outcomes, rather than mechanisms, the links between institutional prestige, resources and networks, and labour market success are well-known.