Students’ Subject Choices ‘Not Matching Up to Workforce Needs’

A report analyzing degree trends in the U.K., U.S., Canada and Australia found that student subject choices do not align with workforce needs in key fields.

The analysis, conducted by course-mapper StudyPortals and management consultancy Nous Group, found that employer demand for business and engineering graduates outstrips the popularity of these degree courses in all four countries. The report examined web hits for courses and job listings on the StudyPortals platform.

In the U.K., student interest in education has fallen behind employer demand, a gap that widened between 2022 and 2025. The country also shows oversupply pressure in biological sciences, IT and physical sciences.

In the U.S., around 189,000 registered nurse openings are projected annually over the coming decade, but student interest in nursing and health sciences has remained comparatively flat. The report states these are large workforce pipelines where demand is growing faster than student interest.

Across all four countries, disciplines where student interest exceeds industry demand include environment and conservation studies, psychology, and the visual and performing arts.

The report calls for universities to develop better partnerships with employers and stronger employment pathways in high-interest fields where employer demand is weak. It also urges universities to embed artificial intelligence across disciplines rather than treating it as a narrow technological specialization.

On international student retention, the U.K. ranks lowest of the four countries, with just 40 percent of international students remaining in the U.K. compared to 66 percent in Canada.

Zac Ashkanasy, Nous Group's global higher education lead, said universities cannot rely solely on current student demand to guide future course offerings. "Universities face difficult choices about where to grow, where to protect capacity and where to reshape their programs," he said. "Those decisions need to be informed by where workforce demand is heading, not only by what prospective students want to study today."