HE report identifies subjects where international demand outstrips supply

The Subject Opportunities for 2024 report by higher education platform Studyportals  is based on analysis of more than 200,000 program listings across 235 subdisciplines as well as search volumes in the December 2023 to November 2022 12-month period.

To identify opportunities, the authors applied three factors: demand higher than supply; page views of at least 100,000 for master’s courses and 50,000 for undergraduate programs; and double-digit growth in pageviews over the last year.

Undergraduate subjects:

At bachelor level, the 10 academic sub-disciplines listed as the top opportunities for institutions were: European Law; Artificial Intelligence; User Experience Design; Dentistry; Machine Learning; International Business; Sustainable Energy; Information Technology; Web Technologies & Cloud Computing; and Software Engineering.

Of those, AI had the highest market opportunity at 4.4 – meaning that the share of pageviews in AI is 4.4 times higher than the share of courses listed on the platform.

Artificial Intelligence was the only academic sub-discipline to appear in the top 10 opportunities for both undergraduate and master’s courses, the authors highlighted. At bachelor level, Pakistan was the highest source country for pageviews, while for master’s programs India showed the most interest.

European Law and User Experience Design, meanwhile, both had a market opportunity of 3.5.

At bachelor level, Web Technologies among the 10 identified subjects had the highest year-on-year growth in pageviews at 53.6 per cent, followed by Sustainable Energy (43.6) and AI (36.1). Sustainable Energy was particularly focused on Europe, the authors said, with most student pageviews coming from Germany, while the destinations most in demand for this subject were Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Ireland.

Master’s programs:

For master’s study, the 10 identified opportunities were: Data Science & Big Data; Artificial Intelligence; Robotics; Construction Management; Human Computer Interaction; Data Analytics; Neuroscience; Computer Sciences: Business Intelligence; and Cyber Security.

Data science had the highest market opportunity at 2.6, followed by AI (2.4) and Robotics (2.3). Although demand outstrips supply, the number of robotics programs has increased from 163 in 2019 to 264 last year, Studyportals said.

The authors highlighted that nearly half of all AI programs listed are in the USA and the UK.

In terms of pageview increases over the last year, Construction Management was the highest among the 10 at 38.7 per cent, followed by Cyber Security (27.9 per cent) and Data Analytics (27.4).

Recommendations:

The authors said that key themes among the ‘high-demand, low-supply’ subjects were broader applicability across industries, career options, rapid technological advances, workplace shortages and a scarcity of academics.

In recommendations for institutions, Studyportals said that institutions should develop new programs, but that updating existing curricula to include specializations in high-demand areas could be a quicker way to address demand. They also said that institutions should partner with relevant industries and focus on interdisciplinary studies that combine elements of high-demand fields.

For recruitment and admissions teams, they recommended increasing the variety of courses targeted at international students, highlighting the employability of graduates from in-demand subjects, diversifying recruitment efforts to take advantage of demand for specific courses in particular regions and countries.