Engineering Education Update 2016, NSW

Transcription

1 Engineering Education Update 2016, NSW Key Points Australia needs to produce more of its own engineers to rebalance sources of the supply of engineers and domestic students are the key feeder group in NSW. Entry level courses in engineering in NSW are primarily bachelor degrees complemented by a very small number of associate engineer courses. Bachelor degree commencements by the State s domestic students have continued the upwards trend of recent years and are now at a record level. This contrasts with the national trend which peaked in 2014 and fell in Nationally, the downturn in entry level commencements began in 2013 when numbers in associate courses fell. This change did not occur in NSW due the predominance of bachelor degrees. There has now been sufficient time for the trend in domestic commencements to be reflected in rising entry level course completions. Completions by domestic students in NSW are now at record levels. The strong growth in commencements should see this trend continue for the foreseeable future. There has been a strong surge in commencements in post graduate courses by domestic students, but to a lesser degree than overseas students. There were more overseas students than domestic students commencing doctoral degrees and four times as many commencing coursework masters degrees. Completions of post graduate courses by domestic students have fallen in each of the last two years. The proportion of women among domestic students has slowly increased over time, having experienced some reduction in the middle of last decade. The increase is too small to address diversity objectives. Women engineers demonstrate a high propensity to undertake post graduate courses in engineering. There has been a surge in the number of overseas students studying engineering in NSW in recent years. Overseas students account for 30.6% of entry level course completions and 57.2% of post graduate course completions. Completions of bachelor degrees fell back to the 2013 level after a record year in Completions of coursework masters degrees recorded strong growth. Engineering education trends in NSW for domestic students were static until 2009 but have now convincingly moved beyond that phase, particularly at entry level. The proportion of overseas students has increased over time driven by increased post graduate courses. The NSW trend in commencement of entry level courses in engineering by domestic students continues to increase whereas at national level it has fallen for two years. For completions the two trends have moved closely together. After leading national growth in post graduate course commencements by domestic students for many years, the NSW and national trends converged last year. The NSW trend in post graduate course completions has slowed sharply relative to the national trend. Background Australia sources new engineers from completions of engineering courses by domestic students and from skilled migration. Statistics on both sources are closely monitored at national level to assist national policy development and to facilitate the development of statistical profiles of the engineering profession. This Note provides an update on university engineering education in NSW. Longitudinal Engineers Australia Public Affairs: publicaffairs@engineersaustralia.org.au

2 statistics show that inter-state mobility of engineers and skilled workers generally is not high. In other words, the number of engineers educated in NSW is an important contributor to the State s engineering labour force. Statistics relating to both domestic and international students are discussed. Domestic students are citizens and permanent residents and upon course completion can draw on their qualification to join the engineering labour market without further formality. Overseas students study in Australia on temporary student visas and are typically full fee paying students. In the Australian national accounts, the revenue derived from overseas students is treated as a form of export earnings and is an important financial resource for Australian universities. However, overseas students cannot join the Australian engineering labour market unless they are granted either a permanent or temporary skilled migration visa. Obtaining these visas is easier than it once was. Many overseas students apply for and are granted on-shore visas while completing the last stages of their course. Sometimes these students do not return to home countries but remain in Australia. But the fact remains that they can only do so after being granted a skilled migration visa. Statistics on overseas students are covered in the discussion to provide an indication of their impact on the engineering education system and as background against which migration statistics can be evaluated. Domestic Students Domestic students starting engineering courses in NSW is the feeder group for home grown engineers. Commencement and completion statistics for the State from 2001 to 2015 are presented in Tables 1 and 2. All level of courses from doctorates to undergraduate enabling courses are included in the Table which is also presented by gender. The statistics in the Tables include the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra which is treated as part of the University of NSW in official statistical collections. It is useful to differentiate between entry level courses that provide admission to the engineering profession and post-graduate courses that deepen the knowledge of already qualified engineers. Entry level courses in NSW are primarily degree courses in engineering for professional engineers and engineering technologists and associate degrees and advanced diplomas for associate engineers. Commencements in entry level engineering courses by domestic students contracted in the first half of the last decade. Since 2006, however, these commencements have been increasing strongly. This change is illustrated in Figure 1. Nearly all entry level courses were bachelor degrees and associate degree and advanced diploma commencements were small. Increasing numbers of entry level commencements were also reflected in the share of these courses in all commencements rising over time. By 2015, 79.8% of engineering course commencements were entry level courses. page 2

3 Table 1: Domestic Students Commencing Engineering and Related Technologies Courses in NSW Men Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Ass degrees & Adv diplomas < Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Women Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Ass degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate < Total All domestic students Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Ass degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Table 2: Domestic Students Completing Engineering and Related Technologies Courses in NSW Men Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Assoc degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Women Doctoral Research masters < Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Assoc degrees & Adv diplomas < 5 < 5 1 Diplomas < 5 < 5 6 < 5 8 Other undergraduate Total All completing domestic students Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Assoc degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total page 3

4 Figure 1 also illustrates the trend in completions of entry level courses by domestic students from Table 2. Readers are cautioned against interpreting the ratio of completions to commencements as a measure of course success. To measure course success, it is essential to follow through annual cohorts of commencements over time. Commencing students can switch between full time to part time studies, between a single and double degree program and between faculties of study. Each of these changes affects completion outcomes. The downwards trend in course commencements in the first half of the last decade affected the trend in course completions until Although subsequently, completions did not recover to the 2001 level until Since then completions have increased solidly and by 2015 were 2,220, an increase of 5.0% on the previous year. The strong rise in entry level course commencements in NSW suggests that completions will continue to increase in the foreseeable future. Figure 2 illustrates the trends in commencements and completions of post graduate courses in engineering by domestic students. The same caution about understanding the relationship between these trends applies. page 4

5 Commencements in post graduate courses increased to peak at 1,509 in 2010 and have since fallen unevenly. In 2015, there were 1,201 commencements by domestic students in these courses, accounting for 18.2% of all commencements that year compared to a long term average of 26.4%. The largest number of commencements occurred in coursework masters degrees and these commencements and those in other post graduate courses were the main sources of variability over time. Completions of post graduate courses were less variable than commencements, but were comparatively flat until about Since then there has been variable growth. In 2015, there were 975 post graduate course completions, down 2.8% over 2014 which was down 3.0% over the previous year. Overseas Students Overseas students studying engineering offer the prospects of export revenue for universities and a potential pool for on-shore skilled migration to draw upon. The composition of both commencements and completions are quite different for this group compared to domestic students. Although quite large numbers of overseas students undertake entry level courses, even larger numbers undertake coursework masters programs. Many of the latter see this approach as enhancing their prospects for obtaining a migration visa. Following the approach adopted above, Tables 3 and 4 present commencement and completion statistics for overseas students in NSW. Table 3: Overseas Students Commencing Engineering and Related Technologies Courses in NSW Men Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Ass degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Women Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Ass degrees & Adv diplomas <5 < Diplomas Other undergraduate Total All overseas students Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Ass degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total page 5

6 Table 4: Overseas Students Completing Engineering and Related Technologies Courses in NSW Men Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Assoc degrees & Adv diplomas < < 5 8 Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Women Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate < 5 7 < 5 12 Bachelors Assoc degrees & Adv diplomas < Diplomas Other undergraduate Total All completing overseas students Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Assoc degrees & Adv diplomas < 5 9 Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Entry level commencements by overseas students experienced high numbers during 2002 to 2004 inclusive, but then assumed a lower plateau for four years at about the 2001 level. From 2009 onwards, there was solid growth in entry level commencements so that by 2015 they had grown to 1,839, up 16.4% over 2014 and 48% higher than in Completions of entry level courses by overseas students were fairly flat through to In the last four years there has been solid but variable growth. In 2015, completions of these courses fell 9.5% to 896 from 990 the previous year. Post graduate commencements began to ratchet upwards from about 2009, increasing from 1,510 to 2,777. The 2015 increase was 27.9% over the previous year and was higher than average growth over the previous three years of 22.3%. Post graduate completions followed a similar pattern but at a lower level. In 2015, 1,413 overseas students completed post graduate courses in engineering, up 6.2% on the previous year. This result compares to 975 completions of these courses by domestic students. Both doctoral and coursework masters degree programs were drivers of the overseas student result. page 6

7 Gender Engineering is a male dominated profession and change has been slow. In the 2006 census, there were 10.6% women in the engineering labour force and just 8.2% women engineers employed in engineering occupations. By 2011, the proportion of women in the engineering labour force had increased to 11.8% and to 9.7% of engineers employed in engineering occupations. These results persisted despite higher proportions of women commencing and completing entry level courses in engineering. The situation in NSW is illustrated in Figure 4. Although there was a period of falling women s share of entry level course commencements during the early years of last decade, the NSW share averaged 14.5% over the fifteen years examined. Similarly, the NSW women s share of domestic entry level course completions has averaged 15.0%. In 2015, the share of commencements was 17.1% and the share of completions was 14.7%. Figure 4 shows that women engineers have a higher propensity to undertake post graduate studies. Women accounted for on average 20.1% of domestic post graduate course commencements and an average 20.4% of post graduate course completions. In 2015, these shares were 21.4% and 21.6%, respectively. Overall Situation Tables 5 and 6 combine the two groups of students attending engineering courses to track the scale of the education task undertaken. Table 5 shows that overall engineering course commencements tracked at or about 6,000 from 2001 until In 2008, there was a pronounced increase establishing an upwards trend that is still continuing. In 2008, there were 6,926 commencements and by 2015 this had increased to 11,581. On average 63.5% of commencements were at entry level, slightly lower in 2015 at 61.4%. On average 34.6% of commencements were post graduate courses with 2015 close to average. On average, 35.5% of course commencements were by overseas students, somewhat higher in 2015 when the share was 42.9%. On average 26.3% of entry level courses commenced and 50.5% of post graduate courses commenced were overseas students. page 7

8 Table 5: Students Commencing Engineering and Related Technologies Courses in NSW, by Residency Domestic students Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Ass degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Overseas students Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Ass degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total All commencing students Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Ass degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Table 6: Students Completing Engineering and Related Technologies Courses in NSW, by Residency Domestic Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Assoc degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Overseas Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Assoc degrees & Adv diplomas < 5 9 Diplomas Other undergraduate Total All completing students Doctoral Research masters Coursework masters Other postgraduate Bachelors Assoc degrees & Adv diplomas Diplomas Other undergraduate Total Engineering course completions were at or below about 4,000 until In 2010 they increased sharply to 4,663 and have continued to increase since. In 2015, there were 5,785 engineering course completions. On average entry level courses were 57.6% of completions, slightly lower in 2015 at 53.9%. On average post graduate courses were 40.5% of completions, slightly higher in 2015 at 41.3%. Overseas students completions accounted for on average 39.3%, but this share has been increasing over time. In 2015 it was 43.5%. On average, completions by overseas students were 27.8% of entry level course completions and 53.8% of post graduate course completions. In 2015, both shares were higher; 28.8% for entry level and 59.2% for post graduate. How Does NSW compare to National Trends? This section aims to compare how NSW commencements and completions of engineering courses compare to national changes. Although NSW is the largest jurisdiction, there is a large scale difference between the State statistics and national counterparts. To facilitate comparison, we converted the two sets of statistics into index number form based on Figure 5 compares NSW and national entry level course statistics and Figure 6 compares post graduate course statistics. page 8

9 In Figure 5, national commencements and completions are illustrated by the solid blue and green lines respectively and the NSW counterparts are illustrated by the dashed blue and green lines. We observe that until 2013, NSW commencements in entry level courses in engineering tracked the national trend quite closely. However, the two trends diverged from then on. Although NSW commencements fell in 2014, this change was small compared to the corresponding national change. Growth resumed in NSW in 2015 but contraction intensified at national level. Since 2007, NSW and national completions of entry level courses have tracked relatively close together but with greater variability in the State figures. Although the State completions trend has turned down it remains within the band of variability from past years. At this stage, it is too early to suggest any difference between the State and national trends. Figure 6 compares NSW and national trends in the commencement and completion of post graduate courses in engineering. The blue lines illustrate trends in commencements. Since 2013, change in NSW commencements in post graduate courses in engineering has been slower than at national level. The extent of the difference suggests a different trend has emerged in NSW. page 9

10 For some years, completions of post graduate courses in engineering in NSW tracked well ahead of the national trend. Since 2012, this difference has been diminishing and the national trend overtook the State trend in Contact: Andre Kaspura Engineers Australia Public page 10