Engineering degrees in high demand

Increasing numbers of the best and brightest students are being attracted to Engineering studies with The University of Queensland (UQ) recording a 12 per cent increase in first preferences for its Engineering and dual-degree Engineering programs.

University-wide, UQ has made 10,169 offers to first-year undergraduate students in the Queensland Tertiary Admission Centre (QTAC) rounds - 8482 offers in today’s round (January 12) and 1687 offers last December.

UQ Director of Planning, Ken Richardson, said the number of offers made for this time of year was up marginally from last year’s 9874 offers.

“Demand for UQ programs across the board is generally higher than last year and first preference demand remains strong across all our faculties,” Mr Richardson said.

“Our OP cut-offs have remained stable except for a handful of programs, including Engineering and dual-degree Engineering programs, which experienced a 12 per cent increase in first preferences. Due to greater competition for admission to Engineering programs, the entry cut-off has jumped one point from OP6 to OP5.”

Mr Richardson said programs in Nursing, Midwifery, Information Technology, Multimedia and Design had also recorded pleasing growth in the number of first preferences.

“UQ’s Nursing program continues to perform strongly and is attracting exceptionally high quality students, which reflects the program’s excellent reputation for training,” he said.

Offers to students for programs at UQ’s Gatton and Ipswich campuses have also experienced an increase.

Offers for programs at Ipswich rose by 17 per cent (715 offers) and was up 4 per cent at Gatton (572 offers).

Mr Richardson said he was also pleased with the applications for UQ’s inaugural intake for the Bachelor of Paramedic Science, with 91 offers being made today for the new course, which will be offered at the University’s Ipswich campus.

Students have until January 20 to respond to the January 12 offer round. UQ will make further offers in the February 9 offer round.

For further dates, visit the QTAC website.

Media inquiries: Kathy Grube, 07 3346 0561.