Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest percentage of female undergraduate students (27.0 per cent), while Saskatchewan had the lowest (18.0 per cent). Seven provinces experienced increases in female undergraduate enrollment since 2017, while eight provinces experienced increases since 2014. Once again, these comparisons were made between institutions that consecutively replied to the enrollment and degrees awarded survey since 2014.

Reference: Engineers Canada

Undergraduate student enrollment in accredited engineering programs totaled 89,242 in 2018. This is an increase of 16.0 per cent from 2014 and an 8.0 per cent increase from 2017.

The highest proportion of undergraduate enrollment continues to be located in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In 2018, these provinces accounted for 41.9 per cent and 30.3 per cent of total enrollment, respectively. Furthermore, Quebec and Alberta underwent the largest percentage increase in enrollment from the previous year, with growth of 28.3 per cent in Quebec and 6.7 per cent in Alberta.

The number of undergraduate degrees awarded totaled 16,497 in 2018, which is an increase of 4.5 per cent from the previous year when compared to the average annual increase of 4.4 per cent for the period of 2014 to 2018. Cumulatively, the number of degrees awarded across Canada has increased 18.9 per cent from 2014. 

Reference: Engineers Canada

The disciplines that experienced the highest proportion of female undergraduate enrolment in 2018 were biosystems engineering (51.3 per cent), environmental engineering (43.7 per cent), and chemical engineering (39.8 per cent).

The disciplines with the lowest percentages of female undergraduate enrollment were software engineering (14.3 per cent), mechanical engineering (14.6 per cent), and mining and mineral engineering (14.6 per cent). While these three disciplines account for 31.6 per cent of the total number of undergraduate students, they only account for 21.0 per cent of the total number of female undergraduate students.

Furthermore, the disciplines that presented the highest growth in the proportion of female students from 2017 were biosystems engineering, software engineering, and mechanical engineering, which rose 37.6 per cent, 25.1 per cent and 14.6 per cent in 2018, respectively. 

Similarly, the disciplines that experienced the highest growth in the proportion of female students from 2014 were software engineering, computer engineering and biosystems engineering, which rose 122.3 per cent, 111.7 per cent and 101.1 per cent in 2018, respectively.

Reference: Engineers Canada