Comparing what people from Wales are studying in Wales VS those outside of Wales: Part 2
8 May 2024
Owain James
In a previous blog post, I gave a breakdown of the number of people from Wales studying scientific subject in Wales versus outside of Wales.
Continuing with this theme, you can see the numbers for all other subjects in the graphic below 👇
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It’s a broad group, with subject areas covering a range of disciplines falling under the humanities and social sciences (parts of ‘Geography, Earth and Environmental Studies’ can also come under the sciences as well!). This data comes from UCAS, and only includes undergraduates with accepted places in the 2022 cycle.
Again, why is this data significant? Despite the fact that more people from Wales study in Wales than outside of Wales overall, this isn’t true for every subject. If you want to reach students from Wales studying certain subjects, this data suggests where might be a good place to look!
Here are my observations on the data:
⚖️ When we looked at the numbers for the Sciences, we saw that ‘Medicine and Dentistry’ and ‘Subjects Allied to Medicine’ were more popular for Welsh students in Wales compared with outside of Wales, subject areas which cover a lot of ‘vocational courses’. I think we see something similar with this data. ‘Law’ and ‘Education and Teaching’ are more popular in Wales than outside of Wales, subject areas which again include courses that are typically more vocational (i.e. lawyers and teachers). It suggests to me that when the degree of choice has a clear pathway to industry there is a strong tendency for Welsh students to stay in Wales.
📈 Social sciences (which ‘Business and Management’ is also a branch of) are more popular with Welsh students in Wales versus outside of Wales.
📖 However, subject areas in the humanities which include the ‘core’ subjects that make up a large part of the school curriculum for all learners in Wales (e.g. History, Religious Education, English, Welsh, as well as Geography) are more popular for Welsh students outside of Wales than inside of Wales. My only suggestion to explain this is that learners who excel in these subjects from a young age may be more inclined to continue with the study of these core subjects in the many high performing, Russell Group universities based outside of Wales who have a strong tradition of teaching these subjects.
🎨 ‘Media, journalism and communications’ and ‘Design, and creative and performing arts’ are more popular with Welsh students outside of Wales than inside of Wales! I must admit I am bit surprised by this. Wales and it’s universities has a strong reputation for the arts, and journalism at Cardiff University is well regarded.
