Evolution of Student Demand for Electrical Engineering Studies in Portugal

Electrical Engineering is one of the classic areas of engineering belonging to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics group. Typically, an Electrical Engineering study cycle assumes a solid background in the areas of mathematics and physics, and covers various topics such as: energy production systems, analog and digital electronics, automation, control, telecommunications, maintenance, computer programming, robotics, among many others. Despite the high employability and the important role of Electrical Engineering in contemporary society, there is currently a significant decrease in student demand for these programmes in several countries. In Portugal, there are several programmes in the general area of Electrical Engineering or equivalent, some more generalist and others with a more focused scope, and with diverse designations. The aim of the study presented in this paper is to characterize the evolution of student demand for Electrical Engineering programmes in higher education institutions in Portugal. In recent decades, Portuguese higher education has undergone major changes and expansions that have led to a large number of programmes, designations and specializations. In view of this, this study intends to investigate impacting factors such as decreasing demand due to dispersion of candidates over many programmes or a potential reduction in the overall attractiveness of the area. For this purpose, the demand is analysed, taking into account aspects such as the type of teaching subsystem (polytechnic and university), geographical localization, programme type, access to higher education conditions, and access classifications, among others. The study regards the chronological evolution over a decade. The results show a significant decrease of interest in Electrical Engineering programmes, which is a serious problem for the future of the profession.