Exploring Diversity in Engineering and Product Design Education

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are three interconnected concepts that aim to create a fair and welcoming environment for people in education and the workplace. While the gender divide in engineering is acknowledged and faces its own unique challenges to promote gender equality and meet growing industry demand for skilled and professional engineering, according to Represent Recruitment Agency, the design workforce in the UK remains well over three-quarters male. This is substantially higher than the 53% national average. Women are not only likely to be paid worse than male colleagues, but they are also likely to be in less senior positions: with only 17% of design managers who are female. For people who come from black, asian or minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, they make up just 13% of jobs in the industry. BAME staff make up just 12% of senior positions and the pay gap can range up to 17%.

There are also issues around sexuality, especially around what can be perceived as male-dominated, heterosexual professions. LGTBQ+ engineers make up a very small percentage (around 5%) with the design industry doing slightly better (11.7% according to a AIGI census survey from 2019). Nonetheless, there are complex issues around visibility and recognition around sexuality.

While universities are now adapting to accommodate for an increase of neuro-divergent students, and those with learning disabilities, how can engineering and design industries benefit from graduates who see the world differently?

The design industry is also facing demographic challenges, with the vast majority of design professionals in their 20s and 30s. There is a distinct lack of older professional designers.

There are also disparities around socio-economic diversity between engineering and design, with a decline of school age students undertaking Design & Technology (D&T) at GCSE and A-level.

With diversity in a design or engineering team, it can be argued that the result is better products, services, and appropriate solutions. The challenge of this conference is a rally call to ask the difficult questions, acknowledge and address the complex problems and provide solutions that inspire to go beyond characteristics, statistics and data.

Aims

The conference aims to:

  • Discuss innovative educational concepts and strategies to help staff, students and graduates address current and future challenges in terms of engineering design
  • Share best practices of design and engineering knowledge transfer between academia and industry 
  • Identify the skills gap between the academic formation of design and engineering graduates and industry needs 
  • Provide a platform to engage a wide and diverse community of participants and explore the various themes from different perspectives.

Sub-Themes

The E&PDE 2026 conference will bring together students, researchers, professionals and industrialists from the engineering and product design sector to exchange knowledge and experience on sub-themes such as:

  • Novel methods for accommodating diversity and inclusivity in multidisciplinary and group-based students’ engineering design projects
  • Challenges and opportunities for educators to foster an inclusive learning environment for students with diverse needs
  • Critique of design methods used in product and service design education
  • Fostering EDI through engineering design educational methods
  • Educating students in considering equality, diversity and inclusivity in product and service design development
  • Integrating the knowledge of diverse designers and cultural nuances in the design phases of products and services
  • Innovative approaches promoting EDI principles in engineering and product design education
  • Collaborative design education practices fostering the appropriate design of products and services
  • Opportunities for AI to enhance diversity in engineering and product design education
  • Industry and academia collaborative models for fostering diversity
  • Understanding students’ experiences from school to higher education, to industry in order to acknowledge and tackle the challenges and barriers faced by designers from minority Ethnic and Heritage communities as well as low socio-economic status

We very much look forward to receiving your contributions and meeting you at E&PDE2026 from 2nd to 4th September 2026 at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom.