A new report from the European Higher Education Sector Observatory (EHESO) sheds light on how European universities differ depending on their focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The report analyses institutional data from over 2 600 HEIs higher education institutions across Europe, drawing on the 2022/2023 academic year.

The findings paint a picture of a continent where most universities have relatively little STEM focus – and where those that do look quite different from the rest.

Most European universities have limited STEM orientation

The report groups institutions into three categories based on the share of their students enrolled in STEM fields: limited, moderate and high. Nearly two-thirds (64 %) of European HEIs fall into the limited STEM category, meaning that fewer than 16 % of their students are in science and technology programmes. A further 28 % have moderate STEM orientation, while just 8 % are classified as highly STEM-oriented.

This distribution stands in contrast to the European Universities Initiative (EUI), the EU's flagship programme for transnational university alliances. There, moderate STEM institutions dominate, making up 63 % of participating HEIs in both 2022 and 2025 – suggesting the selection process may favour a particular type of comprehensive, mid-range institution.

High STEM-oriented institutions are more international

Institutions with the strongest STEM focus tend to be more internationalised. High STEM universities have a median foreign student share of 14.1 %, compared with roughly 9 % for both moderate and limited STEM institutions. The pattern is even clearer for academic staff: high STEM institutions employ around 80 % more foreign academics (8.1 %) than limited STEM ones (4.5 %).

This raises an important question for policymakers: is Europe's STEM capacity partly reliant on imported talent rather than homegrown expertise?

The gender gap remains wide

Perhaps the most sobering finding concerns women's participation. In high STEM institutions, women account for a median of just 32.8 % of students – well below the EU's target of 40 %. By contrast, limited STEM institutions have a median of 62.8 % women students.

The pattern persists at doctoral level (35.3 % women in high STEM versus 54.0 % in limited STEM institutions) and among academic staff (32.3 % versus 44.8 %). The report notes that having fewer women academics in STEM-heavy environments may compound the problem, since research consistently highlights the importance of role models in encouraging women to pursue and persist in these fields.

STEM education costs significantly more

The financial data confirms that STEM education is expensive. High STEM institutions operate with a median core budget of around €8 020 per student, compared with €6 077 for limited STEM institutions – a gap of roughly 32 %.

The differences are even sharper for capital expenditure , where high STEM institutions spend 2.5 times more per student on infrastructure and equipment than their limited STEM counterparts. Third-party funding follows a similar trajectory, with high STEM institutions attracting more than three times as much per student (€1 517 versus €469).

These figures highlight a significant barrier. For institutions wishing to expand their STEM offerings, the investment required goes well beyond hiring new lecturers – it means laboratories, specialised equipment, and ongoing maintenance costs that many universities simply cannot afford without additional support.

What this means for EU policy

The report arrives at a moment when the EU is pushing hard to strengthen its STEM workforce. The recently launched STEM Education Strategic Plan and the broader Union of Skills framework both emphasise the need for more and better-trained STEM graduates. Europe currently produces around 20 % fewer STEM graduates per thousand inhabitants than the United States and 45 % fewer than South Korea, according to figures cited in the report.

The authors suggest several policy directions: targeted grants to help less-resourced institutions modernise their STEM infrastructure, stronger industry-academia partnerships to diversify funding, measures to attract international researchers, and focused interventions to improve gender balance – particularly in the most STEM-intensive environments.

They also note that limited STEM institutions, which make up the vast majority of European HEIs, are underrepresented in flagship programmes like the European Universities Initiative. Finding ways to include these institutions more effectively could help spread the benefits of transnational cooperation more widely.

A word of caution

The report is careful to note its limitations. The data is cross-sectional, meaning it captures a snapshot rather than tracking change over time. The analysis is descriptive, not causal – the patterns identified do not prove that one factor causes another. Other variables, such as an institution's age or its broader disciplinary portfolio, may also play a role. Nonetheless, the study offers valuable evidence base for the ongoing debate about how Europe can strengthen its STEM capacity while addressing persistent inequalities.