This paper considers variations in the social composition of the UK undergraduate Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) population over a two decade period. It is concerned with the extent to which government policy to both increase and widen participation in STEM subjects, has impacted upon the participation rates of those groups of students who have traditionally been less likely to study at university. In particular it looks at stratified patterns of participation in relation to students’ occupational background, gender, ethnic group and age. Although the focus of this paper is on a single country, the inequalities and many of the potential solutions that are seen here are replicated internationally (for example National Academy of Sciences 2007). The empirical basis for the paper can be summarised by the following research questions:

• How have the proportions of undergraduate students studying STEM subjects varied according to their occupational group, gender, ethnic group and age?
• To what extent has any increased diversity in the HE population been reflected in recruitment to STEM and other science subjects?
• What is the evidence that widening participation initiatives have had any effect on the recruitment of under-represented groups into HE STEM programmes?

In the UK, the need to address our version of the ‘science problem’ and to make ‘Britain the best country in the world in which to be a scientist’ (Brown 2009) has included initiatives aimed at increasing recruitment to the STEM subjects at school, at university and through vocational and work based provision (HMT 2004). In 2004, the STEM Mapping Review revealed over 470 STEM initiatives run by government departments and external agencies (DCFS, 2006), all designed to engage young people, and in particular underrepresented groups, in STEM subjects. The motivations behind such initiatives are largely economic and represent industry’s concerns for a suitably skilled workforce (CBI 2008), particularly in the face of competition from other established and emerging economies, such as India and China (Leitch 2006). While traditionally much of the research and policy focus around this issue has been on how science is taught in schools and in particular on the structure of the school science curriculum (Jenkins and Donnelly 2006), much less attention has been given to the trajectory that undergraduate learners take which can lead to careers as professional scientists and technicians (e.g. Institute of Physics 2007). In this study our interest is in that trajectory and in the long term patterns of participation that underpin a sector which apparently struggles to recruit and retain the brightest and the best.

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