Female school leavers still 36% more likely to study for a degree in England and gap is growing even wider in Scotland and Wales

The gap between male and female school leavers applying to start undergraduate degrees at British universities remains at record levels, according to the first official figures released for this year.

Ucas, the central body that administers university admissions, said applications submitted at the January deadline showed that young women are 36% more likely to apply than young men in England, the same gap as last year and the widest on record.

Even wider gaps were seen in Scotland and Wales – 55% and 50% respectively – to reach record levels, while in Northern Ireland the 39% gap was the biggest since 2009.

The gap among students from disadvantaged backgrounds was even higher, with young women in England now 58% more likely to apply than men with the same age and background – although ministers and policymakers will be pleased to see that applications from disadvantaged students have continued to rise.

Overall, the proportion of UK-based applications received through Ucas fell thanks to fewer submissions from those aged 20-to-24 and a drop in the number of 18-year-olds in the population. Applications from EU students outside the UK rose by 6% compared with last year.

“Our report shows further growth in demand for higher education but the declining 18-year-old population and a decrease in older applicants means the actual number of UK applicants available for universities to recruit remains flat,” said Mary Curnock Cook, Ucas’s chief executive.

Although the number of women entering higher education has outstripped men for many years, the gap has continued to widen despite a massive expansion in the proportion of school leavers going to university.

Gender gap in university admissions rises to record level Read more

Experts say one reason for the gap is that women achieve better results in exams such as A-levels and Scottish Highers. When adjusted for qualification levels, men are still more likely to apply for higher education, and are more likely to be successful in their applications.

The figures were published after Curnock Cook said some teachers had told her they were “overpredicting” sixth formers’ A-level results to help them receive offers from universities.

“In the past I would have said ‘surely you wouldn’t be overpredicting your students on purpose?’ And – just this last summer really – I had teachers coming back to me and saying ‘actually, yes we would’,” Curnock Cook told a conference.

This year, 42.3% of 18-year-old women in England applied to higher education, an increase of 1.3 percentage points since 2015. But only 31.2% of men of the same age applied, an increase of 1 percentage point.

“In 2016, women were 36% more likely to apply for higher education at age 18 than men – the same as in 2015, and the highest recorded,” Ucas said in its analysis of the figures, which cover nearly all applications from UK school leavers.

In Scotland nearly 40% of 18-year-old women have applied, while the percentage of men fell for the first time since 2012 to below 26%.

Overall, 593,720 applied to enter UK higher education in 2016, up 0.2% compared with last year, of which 495,940 came from the UK, a fall of 0.3%.

In England the application rate of school leavers from the most disadvantaged areas increased by one percentage point to 22% – a new record. “This means that 18-year-olds living in the most disadvantaged areas in England are 81% more likely to apply to higher education in 2016 than 10 years ago,” Ucas said.

Les Ebdon, head of the Office for Fair Access, the watchdog tasked with monitoring access to higher education, said the figures showed the long-term work universities and colleges had done to increase the pool of applicants.

“However, too many people are still missing out on higher education, despite having the potential to succeed,” he warned.