£5m investment to close the gender gap in STEM careers

But key to the growth plans, said Professor Geoff Rodgers, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Brunel University, is working with schools and other stakeholders to create a step-change in the number of girls studying engineering and science subjects. At first locally in West London, and then nationwide.

“Our facilities be the springboard for not only a large increase in desperately needed engineering and other STEM subject graduates but will take an integrated approach to attracting many more girls into studying maths, physics and computing to A-level and beyond,” stated Professor Rodgers.

“At the heart of our facilities will be a STEM Outreach Lab, which will wow 30,000 school pupils a year on and off campus. Key to its success will be harnessing the enthusiasm and knowledge of our students as they go out as Brunel Student STEM Ambassadors. We know that our programme needs to engage with pupils at different stages of their schooling so that the role model influence is regularly reinforced. We also know from our pilot, HEFCE-funded, Women in Engineering programme that female STEM students hugely benefit from mentoring and ‘soft skills’ training and we will be looking at extending our current scheme to undergraduate and Diploma in Engineering level. But as one of the UK’s top ten universities for STEM and one of the largest, we know we have a wider responsibility to helping crack the gender imbalance issue so we plan to become a national centre of excellence bringing industry, education and policy-makers together to solve it once and for all,” concluded Rodgers.

Vince Cable, Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, added: “Inspiring young people to take up STEM courses is vital to the success of the UK economy. This investment will mean world-class teaching facilities to build tomorrow's skilled workforce. It's just one way we are ensuring the UK remains a world leader in science and research.”