Students Not Yet Dissuaded by AI Exposure in Choice of Degree Subject

Applications rise for AI-exposed degrees even among uncertainty over the future.

Applications to study degree subjects which are heavily exposed to artificial intelligence have increased among UK university applicants, even as entry-level opportunities in those fields begin to decline, according to new academic research.

Following the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, applications for university courses vulnerable to AI disruption, including computing, mathematical sciences, and engineering, saw an unexpected increase.

Researchers examine application trends

A study conducted by Dr Bouke Klein Teeselink (King's College London), with Aristotle Vossos, Andrei Andronic and Kartik Akileswaran (the Supervised Program for Alignment Research), examined domestic application trends across 1,090 higher education degrees from 2020 to 2025.

By linking millions of LinkedIn profiles with UK admissions data from UCAS, the researchers tracked how degree choices aligned with graduate career exposure to large language models.

Instead of pivoting away from fields where automation threatens career returns, the study found prospective students were doing the opposite. After ChatGPT launched, degrees ranking one standard deviation higher in AI exposure experienced a six per cent relative growth in applications compared to less exposed programs.

Yet, while student interest in exposed subjects increased, the proportion of junior and entry-level positions in those target occupations fell by 0.25 percentage points per standard deviation of exposure.

A potential skills mismatch

If the trend were to continue, the researchers warn it could contribute to a mismatch between the skills graduates acquire and those actually needed by employers. Countering this could require intervention by policy-makers.

However, the study authors added it was not necessarily the case that students were making a mistake in their selections. AI may yet create new tasks and jobs for exposed graduates, as technologies have done in the past, and entry-level hiring may recover.

How policy-makers could respond

The researchers said: “To counter any mismatch, policymakers could first improve the information on which students base their choices. Beliefs about labour market prospects are often outdated and overly optimistic, but experimental evidence shows that accurate labour market information corrects such beliefs.

“Secondly, policymakers could invest in retraining. A degree chosen today reaches the labour market only years later, so even well-informed students will sometimes graduate into subjects that weakened along the way.

“Conversion courses and other forms of retraining can absorb part of this mismatch, and they will become more important as AI continues to shift the demand for skills.”

The research contributes to ongoing work at King's on the future of work and artificial intelligence, including through the AI and Workforce Futures programme.