Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
SWOT Analysis on Student Recruitment and FTEs
Professor Oliver Hinton
Head of Department
Professor Barrie Mecrow
Director of Recruitment
November 2000
This SWOT analysis of the current position on student recruitment in the Department is given in response to
recent discussions with the VC regarding apparent recruitment difficulties in the Faculty of Engineering.
The data shown has been obtained from a number of sources: from our own statistics recorded over the last
few years; from publicly available UCAS data; and from a questionnaire handed out to our most recent
intake of undergraduates.
Strengths
Total Admissions
1.
Total Admissions: Total admissions in the Department
have been increased this year as compared with the last three
years, due to increased numbers on our taught MSc
programme in Communications and Signal Processing,
increased numbers on Computer Systems Engineering (the
new UG programme joint with Computer Science), and a
steady year-on-year increase in our overseas recruitment
back to the levels of 4 years ago..
150
Taught
PG
UG O/S
100
50
UG Home
0
1997
1998
1999
2000
Percent of Offers who Finally Register
2.
Admissions to Applications Ratio: For the last three years
the Department has significantly improved its ability to turn
UG applications into admissions. We believe this to be due
to improvements in our Open Day arrangements,
improvements to the building, and the creation of
Department Bursaries. Details of these are given below.
25.00
20.00
15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00
94
95
96
97
98
99
2000
Year
Est imat ed Tot al Weight ed FTEs
3.
Estimated Total FTEs: Estimated weighted FTEs in the
Department have been increased from 286 last year to 347
this year. This has been achieved through: a relatively small
intake to Stage 0 this year; good progression from last year’s
Stage 0 into Stage 1; increased intake into CSE; increased
numbers staying on for Stage 4 of the MEng; and
significantly increased taught PG numbers.
400
Res PG
Taught PG
St age 4
300
St age 3
200
St age 2
St age 1
St age 0
100
0
1997 1998 1999 2000
Taught PG Admissions
4.
Taught PG (MSc) Admissions: MSc admissions have been
increased substantially over the past 4 years, as part of a
deliberate strategy. The greatest increase has been in
Communications and Signal Processing due to the popularity
of the subject. Other activities that have contributed to the
increase have been the introduction of bursaries (detailed in 7
below), and a highly pro-active approach to securing
admissions during the summer.
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80
Micro
60
Electr
Power
40
Auto
Comms
20
0
1997
1998
1999
2000
Page 1
What did you think of the Open Day?
5.
Why made you finally decide to come here?
Open Day: Our own questionnaire
to students has shown that we have
identified a much improved and
successful Open Day strategy, and
that this is strongly influential in
turning applications into admissions.
The main improvements ensure that applicants meet lively staff
and students, see the newly refurbished parts of the building, and have some active involvement in
laboratory work during the day.
40
70
35
60
30
percent
50
40
30
25
20
15
10
20
City
Friend
Poor
Open Day
Neutral
local Uni
Good
Dept/Univ
reputation:
0
0
Course
content:
5
10
6.
Physical Environment: An attractive working environment has been established through a
refurbishment programme. In collaboration with Estates, an external designer was employed to
create a modern and bright entranceway, stairwell, and Reception. This modernisation has received
universal approval and was achieved at relatively little cost - £50,000 in total, shared between
Estates and the Department.
7.
Department Bursaries: A successful range of Departmental bursaries has been created in areas
targeted for increased numbers. This year, the following have been awarded:
£1000 bursary for high quality ‘A’ level MEng entrants
£1500 p.a. bursaries for Far East entrants not meeting required standard for university bursary
£1000 bursary for Stage 4 MEng students obtaining 2.1 mark in Stage 3
£500 bursary for MSc entrants obtaining good 2.1
£2,700 (home) or £4,700 (O/S) p.a. for Research PGs with a First Class degree (in addition to
bursaries from the university or research grants)
Total
8.
x5
x6
x6
x 26
x7
£5,000
£9,000
£6,000
£13,000
£23,890
£56,890
Department Reputation: The Department enjoys a strong national reputation in both teaching and
research. Our graduates are highly thought of and frequently sought after by employers in all sectors.
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Page 2
Weaknesses
Application Trends
Application Numbers: A matter of deep concern is the
evidence of falling application numbers relative to our
competitors, particularly since 1997. Whilst this fall has
been most acute in engineering, including Electrical and
Electronic Engineering, it also appears to be a malaise
afflicting much of Newcastle University.
120.0
100.0
80.0
Percent
9.
Apps to all Univs
Apps to Ncle Univ
Apps to all Engineering
Apps to Ncle Eng
Apps to all E&EE
Apps to Ncle E&EE
60.0
40.0
20.0
0.0
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Year
10.
Literature
University Marketing Strategy: There is
significant evidence from our own
90
questionnaire and from Visit Day feedback to
Uni Prospectus
80
Dept Literature
70
suggest that recent university marketing policy
60
has been disastrous for Engineering. In
50
40
particular, the University’s reduced marketing
30
budget leading to the introduction in 1997 of
20
10
the slimmed down, two-colour Department
0
brochure has put us in a very weak position
Good
Neutral
compared with our competitors. Whilst
Poor
Universities such as Edinburgh, Sheffield and
Birmingham have substantially increased the quality of their marketing, including free CDs, mouse
mats and colour folders, our own has declined, and the comparison is now painful make. Similar
comments can be made about the Prospectus which appears pedestrian and dry compared with some of
our competitors.
The very tight central editorial control over both Prospectus and brochures, coupled with an
unimaginative marketing approach, have become a serious weakness for Engineering as a whole. It
has required approval at Vice-Chancellor level to extract agreement to produce the next Department
brochure in full colour, even with additional costs being met by the Department. This centralism is
now getting in the way of future initiatives.
11.
Degree Programme Titles: The range of degree programme titles in E&EE has retained a more
conventional approach than many of our competitors. Our new programme in Electronic
Communications is a step in the right direction but is in the UCAS book and University Prospectus for
only the first time for entry in 2001.
12.
Local Industry: The North East Region continues to be short of mainstream electronics industries, as
compared with our competitors in Scotland and the South of England. The recent re-occupation of the
original Fujitsu and Siemens fabrication plants by Filtronics and Atmel respectively is of course to be
welcomed, but as yet their need for Graduate Engineers is limited.
13.
Department Size: Some of our competitors such as Edinburgh, Sheffield, Birmingham, etc, are
significantly larger than our current complement of 18 academic staff – by 50% typically. Our size
therefore limits the range of activities we are able to engage in. We will therefore find it difficult as a
Department to develop and sustain activities in the full range of Opportunities listed below.
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Page 3
Opportunities
14.
Applications: Given that we have been able to maintain admissions in the face of falling applications,
and given that the decline in E&EE admissions nationally has been significantly less, it is clear that
one of our priorities must therefore be to increase applications. The following tactics will be adopted.
15.
New Degree Programmes: It is clear that degree
programmes with the right ICT flavour can attract students
600
even given sub-standard marketing. For example, the chart
500
at the right shows how applications to the new Computer
CSE
400
MSE
Systems Engineering programme (CSE) compare with those
300
EC
in E&EE. CSE is listed in Computer Science, but is identical
200
EE
to the Microelectronics and Software Engineering (M&SE)
100
programme listed in Eⅇ both are taught jointly by E&EE
0
and CS. The new degree programme, Electronic
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
Communications, will take its first fully advertised entry in
2001. There are further opportunities for new degree programmes joint with Computing, and possibly
with other “popular” departments wishing to incorporate aspects of electronics in their degrees, such
as Music, Psychology, etc.
16.
Re-badging Existing Programmes: A more rapid development than (15) is to rename existing
Programmes with titles that are “of the moment” and that provide additional entries in the UCAS
Handbook. We believe that the title “Microelectronics and Software Engineering” no longer carries
the weight it did when first introduced. We are therefore actively reviewing a change of title to take
effect in the new Prospectus.
Total UG Applications
Entry
standards
Accredited
Degree
Friend
local Uni
City
Dept/Univ
reputation:
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Course
content:
Revised Curriculum: From our questionnaires it would
appear that IEE Accredited status appears to carry little
weight with applicants, whilst course content is very much
more significant. This would suggest opportunities for
modernising a somewhat old fashioned curriculum, that
introduces stimulating material into Stages 1 and 2, and
possibly provides a route through our degrees for high
quality applicants without Mathematics at ‘A’ level or
equivalent.
percent
17.
Factors which influenced students to apply for E&EE
at Newcastle
How did students first hear about E&EE at Newcastle?
Improved Marketing: Our own very limited market
50
research has revealed that for home students, the
45
40
University Prospectus and the Department Brochure are
35
30
highly influential in attracting applications. We are
25
20
actively working on both at present to improve
15
10
presentation, although this will have no impact until
5
0
applications for 2002. We have already this summer sent
to all schools a professionally designed poster that
advertises the new range of our programmes. In addition
we continue to develop our the quality of our web pages, with the help of a very useful audit from the
Publications Department. However, we also strongly believe that professional market research could
provide us with a better understanding as to why Newcastle has apparently declined in popularity
relative to our competitors. This research would be most efficiently organised at Faculty level.
19.
International Recruitment: We have found the relationship with Innsworld to be most effective for
international recruitment, and this has resulted in numbers increasing from 2 to 9 to 13 over the last 3
years. We believe there are opportunities for expanding this type of operation in other parts of the
world, and particularly in the new European states. There is also evidence to suggest that establishing
special relationships with targeted institutions around the world can be effective.
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Other
British
Council
Advert
Prospectus
Friend
Web
UCAS
percent
18.
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20.
Industrial Sponsorships / Demand for Engineers: It is well established there is a national and
European shortage of engineers, and particularly those in Electronic Engineering. We are frequently
approached by companies who want assistance in selecting suitable graduates. At the same time,
Department bursaries have been shown to be effective in attracting students. Whilst we have a
number of sponsorship schemes with industry, it is probably fair to say that several of our competitors
have established more extensive relationships of these kinds involving bursaries, free handouts to
students, and funding of advertising literature of various sorts. We are therefore embarking on a
planned programme to expand our activity, and hope to attract the support of the new Business
Development Managers (HERO-BC) and the RCID in this venture. Part of the process will involve
identifying particular companies with whom to establish a special relationship, such as Orange who
could provide strong support for our new Electronic Communications programme and our popular
MSc in Communications and Signal Processing.
21.
Partners Programme: Last year we bid for, and received, an additional 15 to our quota through the
Widening Participation and Quality routes. We participated in the Partners Programme last year and
will be again this year. This proved unsuccessful in the sense that the few students who participated
proved to be below the quality we were willing to take. This was in fact the reason we failed to fill
our (increased) quota. Despite this lack of success, we still believe that the Partners Programme can
provide us with the opportunity to improve our profile with local schools, which has until now
compared badly with the University of Northumbria, for example.
22.
Department Communication: We are considering a regular Department Newsletter, which we give
to students, applicants, local industry and local schools, with the aim of increasing our profile –
making sure that everyone knows we are here and doing good things.
Threats
23.
University Perception: There is serious concern that University Management believes the
Engineering Faculty to be inexorably contracting. This attitude could become self-fulfilling if allowed
to become established, due to a spiral down of size and available effort. This would be a huge loss to
both University and region. Newcastle has easily the strongest Engineering Faculty in the North East,
from all points of view, including contract research. It has a very strong national reputation within
academia, the Professional Institutions, and Industry, and a number of groups that are genuinely of
international standing. It is also the case that each Department has a number of real strengths in its
teaching and recruitment that could be readily built upon with the right Faculty and University
strategy. It is vital that we are not diverted from identifying this strategy, and implementing it before
we are too small to have the capacity to do so.
24.
University Centralism: The centralist approach of the university to matters such as marketing
remains a serious threat to our progress. It is vital to re-establish a good working relationship between
the Faculty and the relevant Sections at the Centre so that the very particular needs of Engineering are
fully understood.
25.
The Competition: Many of our competitors have been considerably quicker off the mark with student
recruitment than ourselves, including a number of Russell Group universities. There is therefore a
substantial hill to climb to re-establish our national position.
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Page 5
UG Offers and Registrations by Stage and Classification (excluding
CSE)
OFFERS & ACCEPTANCES
July Total
Year Choices Tot.Offers CF/UF/D No. Reg. UK
OCTOBER REGISTRATIONS
EEC
O.Sea
Fem
A-lev
ND&HD
AC&FC
VQ
Stage 0
Stage 1
Stage 2
MEng
1991
5
861
195
136
120
0
16
11
86
33
1
22
110
4
33
1992
5
710
129
81
63
1
16
6
57
16
1
20
57
4
10
1993
5
715
130
95
73
0
22
3
51
25
5
26
58
11
18
1994
8
880
129
111
77
9
25
10
45
47
8
11
80
20
18
1995
8
803
94
78
52
8
19
7
30
32
12
5
55
18
9
1996
6
547
90
89
53
17
20
9
27
25
12
3
20
51
18
22
1997
6
540
79
84
53
13
18
5
28
23
11
3
16
50
18
14
1998
6
430
75
71
62
7
2
3
48
7
7
2
18
51
2
14
1999
6
344
64
72
43
15
9
2
36
14
14
2
21
39
12
19
2000
6
315
61
73
51
9
13
4
34
18
6
5
11
55
7
24
UG Offers and Registrations by Programme
E&E.E.
E.E.
E.C.
Year
Offers
H.Reg
O.Reg
Offers
H.Reg
O.Reg
1993
391
35
11
205
18
1994
508
40
21
261
1995
494
31
17
1996
330
37
1997
319
1998
O.Reg
6
119
22
3
25
3
125
18
3
181
8
2
128
16
2
16
130
17
3
90
11
4
26
24
128
13
3
93
22
3
232
33
2
109
16
0
76
19
1
1999
205
32
9
74
9
3
65
17
2
2000
200
41
11
70
11
0
42
7
2
1
O.Reg
C.S.E.
H.Reg
3
H.Reg
M&S.E.
Offers
15/02/2016
Ofers
0
Offers
H.Reg
O.Reg
136
13
3
Page 6