The Higher Education Demographics Poll (First Edition): Statistics Report
Introduction
The first Higher Education Demographics Poll of the MCYT fandom was conducted on a whim between approximately 6-12 February, 2023 HKT, with the poll open for a week. The poll was conducted on our main MCYT community blog, @minecraftrelatedrandomness.
Tumblr polls allow for a maximum of 10 options per poll, and all 10 were utilized in the Higher Education Demographics Poll. The options are listed as follows:
Arts and Humanities
Business Administration
Communication and Media
Education
Law
Medical and Health Sciences
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Social Science
I am not in higher education and do not plan on entering higher education
Interdisciplinary field(s)
Results
The poll received 632 responses over its week-long run time. The results are as follows:
The discipline-field which the most respondents reported themselves to be in or be interested in was Arts and Humanities, taking up ~35% of the total votes. This is followed by the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field, with ~27% of respondents stating themselves to be involved or interested in such a field.
All of the other options received under 10% of the vote, of which Business Administration received the fewest votes, taking up only ~2% of the total.
Fans with a background in law or interdisciplinary fields took up ~3% of the vote, while Communication and Media and Education respectively received ~4% of the vote each. The Medical and Health Sciences option was selected by ~6% of the respondents. Finally, ~8% are reportedly in Social Sciences, and another ~8% expressed that they are not in higher education and do not intend to enter it.
Limitations
In spite of the results, there were several factors which we did not consider during the making of the original poll.
As criticized by multiple respondents of the poll, the wording of the original question was written with undergraduate university students and secondary school students in mind, or those around this age range. As a result, it neglects postgraduate students and university graduates who have already entered the workforce.
Several of the categories were not clearly defined. There were several unexpected degrees and disciplines which were not mentioned in the annotations, such as criminology and culinary arts. This led to miscommunication where respondents chose options which did not reflect their degree programme as intended by the creator of the poll.
Individuals with double majors in different disciplines were not taken into account. While they technically fall under the Interdisciplinary Field(s) section, it caused some brief misunderstandings during the proceedings of the poll.
The original poll also neglects university students who have not yet decided on their degree programmes, former students who dropped out of higher education, or those with associate degrees or diplomas due to the question’s specification for a major programme.
The original poll was made on our main account, which has many prominent members of the fandom blocked or vice versa due to various past disagreements. As a result, the outreach of the poll is limited to those who are able and willing to access our main MCYT blog.
The original poll mostly ran concurrent with the MCYTblr Sexymen Poll. As a result, the poll was mostly buried under sexyman voting propaganda and therefore likely received less exposure than it otherwise would have.
As a result, the statistics shown is not necessarily an accurate reflection of the demographics of the MCYT fandom. The reason this separate blog and account was made is to combat limitation #4 stated above, and future iterations of the poll will be conducted with a more inclusive audience in mind.
It is likely that a Second Edition of the Higher Education Demographics Poll will be conducted in the near future to ensure a more thorough understanding of the MCYT fandom and their preferred fields of study in tertiary education. The poll will also include options for education at tertiary institutes other than universities, to take those in say, vocational education into account.
It is also considered for STEM as a field to be split into Science and Engineering, though this may cause complications in terms of how disciplines like Computer Science and Engineering would be classified, as different institutes may have different classifications on the matter. Alternatively, the Medical and Health Sciences option may be merged with the STEM option as they are fundamentally a form of applied science.
