AI-Exposed Degrees Draw More UK Applicants After ChatGPT

OpenAI’s public release of ChatGPT in November 2022 intensified debate over how generative AI will reshape graduate employment. Computing, mathematical sciences and engineering rank among the degree fields most exposed to large language models, which could both automate junior work and create new tasks. Whether students avoid or embrace such subjects matters for universities and policymakers because degrees chosen now will feed into the labour market several years later.

A study released by King’s College London on Sept. 1 examined domestic applications to 1,090 UK degree programmes from 2020 through 2025, linking UCAS admissions data with millions of LinkedIn profiles. After ChatGPT’s launch, programmes whose associated careers ranked one standard deviation higher in AI exposure recorded 6% stronger relative application growth. Yet the share of junior and entry-level jobs in those occupations fell by 0.25 percentage points for each standard-deviation increase in exposure.