Subject choice trends in post-16 education in England: Investigating subject choice over the past 20 years
14 August 2024
This independent report, commissioned by The British Academy, examines the data on how students have chosen to combine different subjects over last two decades and how student characteristics relate to subject choice. It also explores how wider contextual changes have affected the subjects that students choose to study in order to build a better understanding of the drivers of post-16 education choices. The analysis presented in this report and accompanying dashboards draws on student-level data from the National Pupil Database (NPD) and Individualised Learner Record (ILR) between 2003/04 and 2021/22 and uses both descriptive and econometric approaches.
Key Findings
- There has been a fall in take-up across all major subject groups - Arts, Humanities, Social Science and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) - at AS/A-level since 2015/16. This fall is probably linked due to decoupling of AS-/A-levels from 2015/16.
- Humanities and Arts subjects take-up has declined considerably over the last two decades, compared to STEM and Social Science subjects.
- Students are increasingly narrowing the range of subjects they are taking at AS/A-level. Increasing proportions of students are electing to only study subjects that sit within the same major subject group. Furthermore, between 2003/04 and 2021/22, the proportion of students exclusively taking AS/A-levels from a single subject group almost doubled.
- A young person’s background and environment play a key role in influencing their subject choices. Subject choices by AS/A-level students vary significantly by student characteristics, even once other factors have been accounted for.
- While almost all providers are offering AS/A-levels in each major subject group, at the individual subject level, choices for students have diminished since 2007/08 with providers generally reducing the range of subjects being offered.
The report, accompanying interactive dashboards and technical appendix are all available on The British Academy’s website.