As the Prime Minister stated in November this year 'science will be as important to our economic future as stability.'Indeed, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) were among the higher education (HE) subjects identified in 2005 as being strategically important and vulnerable. Set against this background are downward trends in the numbers of students studying certain STEM subjects and closures of STEM departments in UK universities. This POSTnote outlines trends in STEM education and the possible reasons for them, and looks at their significance in terms of supply and demand of STEM qualifications. It also examines issues concerned with closures of university STEM departments.