There is a major shortage of skilled labour in the engineering sector in Germany. Politicians and professional associations have therefore been trying for years to attract more young people to study engineering. However, first semester and student numbers are falling. Without a simultaneous increase in first-year students from abroad and in computer science, the decline would be even more dramatic. The biggest loser is mechanical engineering/process engineering. This is shown by an evaluation of the CHE Centre for Higher Education for engineering sciences including computer science.
13 per cent drop in first-year students in a 10-year comparison
In the winter semester of 2023/24, around 750,000 people – around one in four students in Germany – were enrolled on a degree programme in engineering. Engineering science comprises twelve fields of study, including architecture and computer science in addition to the two major subjects of mechanical and electrical engineering.
Since the winter semester 2020/21, student numbers for this subject group have been falling continuously, from 783,000 to currently 749,000. The number of first-semester students has fallen by 13 per cent in a 10-year comparison.
Efforts to recruit engineering students not very successful
Engineering is regarded as the centrepiece of the German economy. This is one of the reasons why there have been numerous initiatives by politicians and professional associations in recent decades to encourage more young people to study engineering.
‘Unfortunately, the efforts were not sufficiently successful,’ summarises Marc Hüsch. ‘Despite numerous campaigns, there has been a decline in the number of students in many engineering courses in recent years,’ says the expert in statistics and data visualisation at CHE. ‘Computer science is an exception here, but even here the number of students and graduates is not sufficient to cover the demand for skilled labour,’ continues Hüsch.
Largest decline in mechanical engineering/process engineering
The largest decline in the subject group of engineering was recorded in mechanical/process engineering. With a drop of almost 16,000 first-year students in a 10-year comparison, there has been a decline of around 45 per cent. This is exacerbated by drop-out rates of around one third in the Bachelor’s degree programme. At regional level, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Rhineland-Palatinate are particularly affected by the decline. Here, there were around 70 per cent fewer first-semester students in mechanical/process engineering compared to the winter semester 2013/14.
The CHE analysis also shows that 11 out of 12 fields of study in the engineering sciences have lost first-year students in a 10-year comparison. The only exception is computer science, which increased its number of first-semester students by 9,300 to 38,200 in the winter semester 2023/24.
‘We are observing a shift in student numbers in the entire field of engineering. The trend is moving away from traditional engineering degree programmes such as mechanical and electrical engineering towards computer science – from hardware to software, so to speak,’ says study author Marc Hüsch.
Positive trend in foreign students slows the decline
The overall view of the CHE overview shows: German universities are not generating enough graduates to cover both the current gap and the future demand for skilled labour in the engineering sciences.
However, according to the authors, the development would be even more challenging without the simultaneous significant increase in foreign students, which is also particularly noticeable in the field of computer science. At 25.6 per cent, the engineering sciences subject group has the highest proportion of foreign students of all subject groups. In the field of mining and metallurgy, more than one in two students now comes from abroad.
The comparatively high proportion of women among foreign students in engineering is also noteworthy. Just under a quarter of foreign but only a ninth of German female first-semester students began a degree programme in engineering in the winter semester 2023/24.
Foreign students as part of the solution to the engineering shortage
‘Foreign students can be an important part of the solution to the problem of skilled labour in the engineering sector, but the issue must be addressed in a targeted and strategic manner. Overall, we should continue to work on making studying engineering as attractive as possible for both German and foreign prospective students,’ says Marc Hüsch, author of the study.
Among other things, targeted study concepts with a view to different target groups, such as working people or students without an “Abitur” (school qualification for higher education in Germany), could contribute to this. Particularly in view of the currently large number of foreign students, the development and expansion of English-language study programmes and further training for teaching staff with regard to intercultural and language skills are important.
About the publication:
The basis of the ‘CHECK – Studying Engineering & IT. How are student numbers, new enrolments and degrees developing?’ (only available in German) is based on analyses of numerous data sources, such as the Federal Statistical Office and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The development of student numbers, first-semester students and graduates in the field of engineering was analysed in a 10-year comparison. In the classification system of the Federal Statistical Office, this subject group comprises twelve fields of study, including architecture and computer science in addition to mechanical and electrical engineering. The authors of the publication are Gero Federkeil, Cort-Denis Hachmeister and Marc Hüsch.