Student subject preferences are shifting
According to SFS Media (based on a sample size of 5,600 prospective students) only 9% of Gen Z desire to study Medicine, whereas it’s 18% (!!!) for Gen Alpha.
What a pivot.
This is in line with a recent report by Ellie Sparkles that revealed 26% of children ages 5-8 want to be doctors.
It could be chalked up to the long tail of the pandemic, but there are other notable subject shifts:
Business management losing its charm
Social sciences falling off a cliff
Computing gaining ground
The last two are fairly easy to explain (even if the decline of social sciences is like a knife to my heart) but why’s interest in Business Management falling?
One reason might be that Generation Alpha are far more open to apprenticeships and alternative routes of study than their predecessors:
36% would consider an apprenticeship whereas only 11% of Gen Z would do the same.
The Student Room has also reported a sharp increase in traffic to its “alternative routes to university” forum.
Something is shifting.
Emotionally, the next generation of prospective students is made of different stuff:
More likely to be entrepreneurial
Over index for ambition and confidence
11% would consider a job straight out of school
This doesn’t feel like an incremental shift.
It looks like root and branch change in how we should attract, engage and recruit these young people.
Be ready to pivot.
