University students enrolled in technological careers fall by 30% because "it does not compensate for the effort"

• Overqualification: Half of the university graduates who work have a job below their qualification
• Gender: Why don't girls want to be engineers?
• Proposals: Why free tuition fees would not lead more women to study Science careers

While the European Commission warns that in the coming years thousands of jobs will remain unfilled due to lack of technological profiles, Spanish university students do not like STEM careers (the acronym that groups the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics ). The rectors are worried because the number of enrolled in these degrees has fallen by 30% since 2000.

Students studying these careers represent only 24% of the total: 18.4% study engineering while 6% have enrolled in science studies, compared to the average of 21% and 8% that exists in the EU countries. While in the European case the studies of social and legal sciences have been losing weight and engineering and architecture have been gaining it, here engineering has lost it at the expense of the arts and humanities.

"Without enough engineers, mathematicians, physicists or chemists, we will stay out of Revolution 4.0, as it happened in other times of our history, and we will be technologically dependent," warns the president of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (Crue) , José Carlos Gómez Villamandos .

He says it in the prologue of a report on the socioeconomic contribution of the Spanish university system , which he presented this Wednesday with the Conference of Social Councils of the Spanish Universities in the presence of Minister Pedro Duque . The work, which has been carried out by the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie ), insists that "these qualifications are considered key so that the development of economic activities based on digitalization is not slowed down due to a shortage of workers with these qualifications" .

It does not compensate the effort

Why have enrollments declined so much over these two decades? "Due to mismatches in the labor market. An effort is requested that does not compensate for the subsequent professional career", replies the mining engineer Francisco Michavila , emeritus professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, honorary rector of the Jaume I University of Castellón and former director of Education of Spain before the OECD, UNESCO and the Council of Europe.

"Objectively they are tougher races and here there is a clear generational change, because these young people value their effort differently. You can get motivated to take them when you expect a higher salary, but our labor market does not give higher premiums that extra effort they make The students, if the market does not compensate for the extra effort of a tougher career, they study other types of careers, "explains Joaquín Aldás , Professor of Marketing and Market Research at the University of Valencia and one of the authors of the study.

Antonio Abril , president of the Conference of Social Councils of the Spanish Universities and general secretary of the Council of Inditex, disagrees: "If we are transmitting this perception, it is not correct. Companies, both mine and others, are hiring technology profiles. In computing there is full employment. A dean told me that the problem they have in this career is that companies take students before they finish their studies. "

The report also adds that "the fall is caused both by the lower predisposition of women towards STEM degrees and by the lower orientation of private universities towards these types of degrees." Women "are very underrepresented" in both the degree and the master. University students, who occupy 55% of all enrollments, are only 32% in STEM areas, compared to 68% of university students, which account for 45% of total qualifications.

In the last two decades, the representation of women has been gaining more and more weight in higher education, but has leaned more towards careers in humanities, medicine or education. Something similar happens in other countries. The EC prepared in 2009 a study to improve the situation - the so-called Rocard report - but has had no consequences. "It must be a priority in future European politics," says Michavila.

"Feminization" in Teaching

"When I speak with the deans of Teaching, they express their concern about the increasing feminization of their studies: 95% of the students in education are women," says José Manuel Pastor , co-author of the report and Professor of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis from the University of Valencia, which warns that "children reach 15 years without having male references in teaching."

The PSOE has proposed free enrollments for girls in the first course of these careers, but the rectors do not see that it is a good idea and they are committed to introducing coordinated measures among educational administrations, such as mentoring programs in the first years of the race to avoid dropout or visibility performances from school. "The role of school counselors is essential, but they should also be reinforced with the systematization of some initiatives that are already being carried out, such as the Science Olympics or the testimonies of successful scientists."

"The problem comes from Primary and ESO, we must do more vocational guidance, that responsible decisions are made in choosing the qualifications that will have more employability, we must teach them to value employability too," Antonio Abril emphasizes.

On the other hand, in the report the rectors ask for changes in the regulatory framework to "demand a minimum weight of these degrees in the total offer of universities", since they have observed that in private universities the offer is more aimed at the branches of health sciences and social and legal sciences, while they barely have 10% of students in engineering and architecture careers, almost half that of public campuses. "If the private part of the system grows significantly and in this part there is an underrepresentation of STEMs, the effect is transferred to the entire Spanish university system."

Why does this "underrepresentation" occur on these campuses? Because these branches "demand more investment in laboratories and scientific equipment" and are "less attractive" to private companies, which have focused on the areas of greatest demand.

"Traditional degrees in technology have strong competitors. It is more difficult to dedicate that additional traditional effort of engineering to study double degrees in highly demanded areas," adds Michavila.

"Nor do I think it is a matter of requiring any private university to offer a minimum of STEM degrees," says Javier Tello , general director of the San Pablo Ceu University Foundation. "It is not a matter of supply but of demand. 25 years ago being an architect or engineer had a professional expectation that today is very doubtful. Tell a young man from now to take one of these careers, he will tell you that he prefers another more profitable one."

Meanwhile, Spain has the highest percentage of overqualified university students in the EU (36%), young people working in jobs that are below what they studied. "It is impossible to absorb all the human capital we have," the authors of the report have warned: Spanish university graduates have an unemployment rate that is five times higher than the EU average and many lower salaries compared to other countries.

Choosing easier careers but with fewer job opportunities has consequences for the wage gap: Pastor recalls that "if women study degrees that have less pay, in the future they will have fewer salaries."

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