Our thanks to Nigel for emailing us in relation to the UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admission Service) ‘End of cycle report’, published today. He writes:

I note that the new head of UCAS chooses not (at least in the BBC report) to continue her predecessor’s policy of highlighting this point. Hover the annual report is here; https://www.ucas.com/file/1…

And in it we find: “For 18 out of the 26 subject groups, more women than men were accepted. Within certain subject areas significantly different ratios between men and women exist” and “Elsewhere, 18 year old women were more than a third more likely to enter than 18 year old men”. Interestingly this is skated over and UCAS has a new composite “equality measure” “MEM” that obscures this big disparity. The cynic in me suggests the big gender disparity is being deliberately obscured, given the wider Political push to make much of “Gender Gaps”.

In the more detailed report too one has to hunt for the Gender data, but it is there and the bottom line is the gap again increased.

” As with application rates, women are over a third (36 per cent) more likely to enter a HE provider through UCAS than men, with the percentage point difference in entry rate widening, to 9.9 percentage points in 2017. This difference in 18 year old entry rates between men and women equates to 37,780 fewer 18 year old men entering higher education this year than would be the case if men had the same entry rate as women.”

https://www.ucas.com/file/1…

I hope men’s Groups and those concerned about Boys education won’t allow this obscuring to end the debate about the still growing gap.