Gender gap in UK degree subjects doubles in eight years, Ucas study finds

Today everyone’s talking about the university gender gap! Ucas revealed that ‘Women now outnumber men in almost two-thirds of degree subjects, and the gender gap in British universities has almost doubled in size since 2007, figures show’.

Articles covering the issue can be found on the Guardian, Telegraph, The Times, Scotsman and The Mirror.

‘Among students who started degree courses last autumn, women outnumbered men in 112 out of 180 subjects, while men were ahead in 65 and there was equal representation in three. Overall, 66,840 more women than men are now on degree courses, compared with a gap of 34,035 in 2007.

The biggest gap is in nursing, where women outnumber men by nine to one, with 22,285 more female students than male. Psychology has the second biggest gender divide, followed by social work, education and design. Women are also ahead in areas such as history, philosophy, English, law and biology.

Among the subjects with more men, the biggest gap is in computer science, which has 13,085 more male students than female, followed by mechanical engineering, sports science, electrical engineering and economics.

Ucas noted that as there were more men in the population than women in general, there should be about 5% more male students than female in each subject.’ [Guardian]