50% for the Future

Illustration of Mechanical Engineering-related jobs

At Swansea University we pledge to:

"Champion, advance and advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) for all staff and students.

Work in an evidence-based and transparent manner, where we hold ourselves and others accountable, to encourage a growth in mind-set around EDI."

Increasing the female representation within Mechanical Engineering

The 50% for the Future (50%FTF) project at Swansea University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering (DoME) aims to improve female representation and experiences studying and working in Mechanical Engineering. This ambitious project was awarded through The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity Impact Programme and launched in August 2022, it has worked to address the low female student representation within the DoME undergraduate courses (8.5% in a ~500 student cohort, below the then national average of 11.2%).

Female Mechanical Engineering students reported challenges in the male-dominated environment, including low self-confidence, self-efficacy, and a lack of relatable role models. Consequently, the long-term goal has been to increase female representation, whilst in the interim working to improve their current higher education (HE) study experience, to better support and inspire their ongoing careers in Mechanical Engineering. The project has worked to address three key issues around females becoming a professional Mechanical Engineers.

The delivered final report and “How to Guide”, serves as a “Springboard” via evidence-based, beneficiary defined interventions, to achieve “50% for the Future” female representation, not only studying ME at SU, but within the profession.

Intervention Development

The scoping work for “50% for the Future” was initiated in September 2021. To capture the true voice of the beneficiaries, a working group (WG) was established that comprised a diverse representation of our Mechanical Engineering student cohort, academics, industry and IMechE. In addition to the clear aim of increasing female student numbers in the department, three problem areas were identified by the WG as needing to be addressed to both help to achieve this long-term aim, as well as to provide more immediate positive impact for the beneficiaries.

The Problem Areas

“THE BEFORE”: The misconceptions around Mechanical Engineering - Surmised as the collision of the “engineering and gender stereotype”

Project Objective:

Improve our understanding of the motivating factors around the selection of STEM subjects and subsequently Mechanical Engineering
Improve our understanding of the difference in perceptions around Mechanical Engineering for males versus females.

“THE NOW”: Overcoming and thriving in the male dominated HE Environment.

Project Objective:

Establish how we can reduce the negative impact of a male-dominated learning environment, to prevent female students from any barriers to success and motivation while studying.

“THE FUTURE”: Stemming the leaky pipeline effect.

Project Objective:

Identify ways to better support our female students in their future career aspirations to mitigate against the “leaky pipeline” effect.

Our Vision

“50% for the Future” will endeavour to:

Create a more supported and enriching experience for women whilst studying.
Create a more inclusive curriculum.
Increase focus on mentoring and role models, to enhance our beneficiaries’ confidence with regard to pursuing a successful career within Mechanical Engineering.

Our Ambition

Increase the female representation within SU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering (DME) student cohort to 50% before 2050
Match the National Average for female students studying Mechanical Engineering within 5 years
Monitor the satisfaction and well-being of our female undergraduates through regular scored Questionnaires and focus groups – wherever possible, we will look to improve our scores and feedback
Ensure/maintain a high proportion (<75%) of our female undergraduates are motivated/confident enough to pursue a career in the field of Mechanical Engineering

Our Findings

During our funded project we have run a number of surveys, focus groups and workshops with our students, from analysing this data we developed several interventions.

If you are interested in finding out more about this work, then please contact jennifer.thompson@swansea.ac.uk

An overview of our Interventions can be seen below.

A Hybrid Outreach Approach

In designing interventions to address our “problem 1” we adopted a Hybrid Outreach Approach, involving outreach with schoolchildren and educators, and incorporating our own undergraduates, industry and alumni to provide access to role models.

Holistic Learning – Ducks and Hoppers

Our undergraduate outreach team facilitate Lego Education Workshops or other design based workshops either at Swansea University or at local schools/colleges.
If your school would be interested in attending such an event, then please get in touch 50forthefuture@swansea.ac.uk

Creative Writing Competition – “Finding out for myself”

We run Creative Writing competitions with local secondary schools. Read our winning entries from 2023 here!
If your school would be interested in taking part, then please get in touch 50forthefuture@swansea.ac.uk

Educating the Educators

Bridging the gap between secondary schools/colleges and Higher Education, to allow for more consistent dissemination of learning around (Mechanical) Engineering. We have devised and run Teacher CPD Conference days. See below the illustrations from our 2023 conference!
If your school would be interested in attending such an event, then please get in touch 50forthefuture@swansea.ac.uk

EDI Teacher CPDBanner

The How to Guide

With further funding from the RAEng we have been able to produce a How to Guide which gives you all the information on the Hybrid Outreach Approach outlined previously.

To access a copy of the Guide please click here: How to Guide to a Hybrid Outreach Approach

Below is an overview animation which you may find of interest before reading the Guide:
https://youtu.be/LkD1xOeITfg

Regional 50% for the Future Outreach Hubs

We are interested in developing regional hubs of HE-institutions to roll out the 50% for the Future Hybrid Outreach Approach.

If you and your institution are interested in creating/joining a Hub then please contact: 50forthefuture@swansea.ac.uk

Interventions during study

Mechanical Engineering Society

Run by our very own student cohort to enhance our ME community and create a more inclusive culture through fun and educational social events.

Teamwork contracts and conflict resolution process

Developed and implemented within all group based design projects in Mechanical Engineering. A Teamwork contract that encourages respectful treatment of all team members; along with a clear process for dealing with unacceptable behaviours and attitudes. The teamwork contract was developed around 4 sources of conflict within teams: Status, Relationships, Process and Tasks.

Work has been presented on the implementation of this approach and several conferences. For further information on the teamwork contract please contact jennifer.thompson@swansea.ac.uk and ben.morgan@swansea.ac.uk

Project success to-date

1. Our Hybrid Outreach Approach has been a success for the following reasons:

- From qualitative and quantitative data acquired from schoolchildren and teacher participants we have seen clear increases in understanding and positive opinion around Mechanical Engineering;
- We have seen a marked increase in our female enrolment in Mechanical Engineering. The average female representation across the Mechanical Engineering cohort in 2021 was 8.8%, whereas in our 2024/25 entry we saw 14.9% female representation. This is around a 70% increase, and is against the backdrop of ~10% female intake into UK HE Mechanical Engineering courses (www.engineeringuk.com/research-and-insights/our-research-and-evaluation reports/engineering-and-technology-workforce-may-2025-update/).

2. The 50% for the Future project won the Engineering Talent Award for “University Engineering Team of the Year 2024”

engineeringtalentawards.com/winners-2024

Events/Conferences

“50% for the Future – Underrepresentation of females studying Mechanical Engineering.” SALT Conference, 2022
“50% for Future – Proactively creating a strategy to enhance the female student population studying Mechanical Engineering.” Advance HE EDI Conference, March 2023
“Inclusive Learning and Teaching for Female Mechanical Engineering Students.” Inclusive Engineering Conference, April 2023
“50% for the Future: Addressing the Underrepresentation of Female Students Studying Mechanical Engineering.” 15th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, June 2023
“Gaining deeper understanding of the female decision-making process for the selection of Mechanical Engineering at Degree level in the UK, to counteract its low uptake.” Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference, June 2023
“50% for the Future: Creating a strategy to enhance the female representation studying and working in the field of Mechanical Engineering” RAEng Community of Practice, November 2023
“Attempting to better understand and address the underrepresentation of female students studying Mechanical Engineering at Degree level through the implementation and comparison of various outreach interventions.” Advance HE EDI Conference, March 2024
“How can we improve the effectiveness and fairness of Group Work; with a focus on the experience for females studying in male-dominated STEM subjects.” UK and Ireland Engineering Education Research Network Annual Symposium (EERN), June 2024
“50% for the Future – Assessing the impact of the Higher Education experience for females studying in a male-dominated Mechanical Engineering cohort.” (POSTER) Horizons in STEM, July 2024
“50% for the Future Project.” Sustainability in Steel Conference ,July 2024
“How can we improve the effectiveness and fairness of teamwork; with a focus on conflict resolution and continuing professional development through an evolving team contract”. The International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED), 2025.