Girls outperform and outstay boys in school and, as a result, they go on to university in ever greater numbers. According to new statistics from the federal Education Department, the number of female students in higher education jumped by 33.5 per cent between 2002 and 2012, compared with a 22 per cent rise for males.

In 2002, of the 151,550 Australian students who graduated from university, 56 per cent were women. By 2012, graduation numbers had increased to nearly 195,000, of whom 60 per cent were female, a ratio likely to be higher again this year.

Margaret Vickers.

Although women have often opted for courses such as nursing and teaching, their numerical superiority has invaded the previously typical male domains, extending from the undergraduate through all postgraduate levels. Women now outnumber men from bachelor degrees to the top doctoral peaks, and they are also in the majority in seven of the 10 main subject areas, the exceptions being architecture, engineering and information technology.

Among undergraduates, female numbers in architecture and building have remained at about 38-40 per cent; in engineering they have stayed at about 14 per cent, but in information technology their proportion has fallen from 23 per cent to 15 per cent over the past 10 years.