Engineering more engineers - bridging the mathematics and careers advice gap

The popularity of engineering degrees among undergraduates is in decline. There are many barriers affecting the supply of engineering undergraduates and the School of Technology at the University of Glamorgan has identified lack of awareness of what engineering entails and lack of mathematical preparedness as two principal barriers to potential students studying engineering in higher education. To show how the School of Technology overcame these barriers, the role of the Network75 Recruitment and Support Officer will be explained along with the subsequent development of a remedial summer mathematics programme entitled ‘Bridging Technology with Mathematics’. These two initiatives are outlined and their success evaluated in terms of increasing engineering undergraduate enrolments for the academic year 2005/06. This paper would be of interest to anyone working in the field of engineering recruitment and admissions, as this programme can be replicated by other further education or higher education providers.