Undergraduate Enrolments in Power Engineering

The Bachelor of Engineering degree structure at the University of Canterbury was changed significantly in 1990 to give students a much wider choice of specialisations in years 3 and 4. Students tend to select the subjects that they are most interested in or the ones that they perceive will get them jobs. This paper discusses the enrolment trends in the three key power specialisation areas of power systems, power electronics and electrical machines. Academic staff have instituted a range of strategies designed to stimulate student interest in power engineering. As a result, the overall recent trend seems to have been a small increase in enrolments in power specialisations in the final year.