Uni will have more girls than boys as gender gap grows

Girls do better, but more boys get A*s


Your uni will have more girls than ever before, as the gender gap widens.

The ratio of girls to boys increased again this year, with 60,000 more women getting into uni.

If the trend in the last twenty years carries on, women will outnumber men two to one by 2035.

The number of men heading to university this year went up by four per cent to 179,000 men, but there was a six per cent increase for women to 235,000. There will be 14 per cent more female freshers for the 2015-16 intake, with only 43 per cent men.

Girls narrowly outperform boys overall, but more boys earned an A* grade than girls.

Wonder what the dog got

Already, twice as many girls from poor backgrounds are going to uni than men, and there’s still a gap among middle class students.

This has been put down to the changes in the way qualifications are tested. In the last decade GCSEs, A-levels and degrees have become modular, which rewards continuous study over short-term cramming. This modular system is believed to benefit women, but the government are reverting back to the linear exam system that is expected to reverse this trend.

 

With the wait for A-level results finally over, total UCAS admissions are up three per cent, to 409,410 this year, after the government lifted the cap on the number of students a university can take in.

300,000 students found out their results yesterday, and 409,000 have already been awarded places for 2015 entry, with two months still to go before the clearing closes. Last year 61,300 people found a place through clearing, and top universities have already had to drop their grade requirements in a desperate bid to fill places.

The only boys going to uni this year

Leeds had around 380 places left, Glasgow University with over 200, Manchester with around 180 and Queen Mary with roughly 190. Southampton University still had hundreds of courses in clearing.

This year recorded a slight drop in the number of A and A* grades awarded for the fourth consecutive year, but the overall pass rate increased to 2013 levels of 98.1 per cent.

Maths remains the most popular A-Level, with 10.9 per cent of all entries, closely followed by English at 10.5%.

There are worries that some subjects will die out after a 29.1% increase in the number of students sitting computing exams, but significant drops in the numbers taking music and German.

Michael Turner, JCQ’s director general, said: “Students can be confident that they have received the results they deserve.”