Comparing what people from Wales are studying in Wales VS those outside of Wales: Part 1 – Darogan
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Comparing what people from Wales are studying in Wales VS those outside of Wales: Part 1

8 June 2024

Owain James

Recently I’ve discovered that you can filter students by their location of study and subject of study (with some limitations*) through UCAS’s website. So I thought I’d pull the data together and compare what people from Wales are studying in Wales VS what they are studying outside of Wales, and see what emerges.

I’m sharing the results in two parts: next week I’ll share the data for the subject areas that HESA classifies as ‘Non-Science’ – but this week I’m sharing the data for subjects falling under ‘Science’, which you can find in the graphic below 👇

Before I discuss the data – why is it even useful to know what people are studying by their location of study? Well, if Wales has skills shortages in certain areas, we really want to know if there are other talent pools in other locations we can draw upon to fill those skills gaps. This, as a tool, can help employers and organisations in Wales know where certain skills are being developed, and perhaps change recruitment strategies accordingly.

Here are some observations on the data below:

  • Although there is still a number of people who study subjects in relation to human biology outside of Wales (i.e. Medicine and Dentistry; Subjects Allied to Medicine; Biological and Sport Sciences; Psychology), people from Wales tend to stay in Wales to take these subjects. Perhaps this shows an intent to work within the Welsh NHS after graduating?
  • Conversely, if you are looking for somebody from Wales with a degree in Veterinary Science or Agriculture/Food, you might want to look outside of Wales
  • Many high-demand STEM subjects fall under categories that are stronger outside of Wales (Physical Sciences; Mathematical Sciences; Engineering and Technology), with the exception of Computing degrees. The demand for these skills will keep growing – we should be looking outside of Wales to meet these skill gaps it seems.
  • Architecture, Building and Planning degrees are more popular outside of Wales – anecdotally I have heard that there is a lack of some ‘in demand’ degrees within this category in Welsh Universities, which may explain the balance in favour of universities outside of Wales.

You can have a play around with the data on UCAS’s website here (under Provider > Applications & acceptances).

‍*The limitations to keep in mind:

  • This data only refers to undergraduates whose places had been accepted by the end of 2022 cycle
  • The subjects cannot be explored in any greater detail. For instance, you cannot find out the specific courses that people from Wales are taking