Men falling behind women in higher education ‘at alarming rate’ Women are accelerating so far ahead of men in higher education that within a decade the gender divide at universities […]

Women are accelerating so far ahead of men in higher education that within a decade the gender divide at universities and colleges will be greater than the rich-poor divide, warns the UK’s head of admissions.

Gender Divide Applications from women outstripped men’s by a record 94,140 The i newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

The gender gulf dates back to the mid 1990s when the number of women first overtook the number of men.

And it is set to hit a new high later this year after applications from women outstripped men’s by a record 94,140, according to a new report, which showed female applicants dwarfed male ones by 343,930 to 249,790.

In a trend that is “storing up problems for the future,” the report warns that 18-year-old women are now 35 per cent more likely to go to university than men – and points out that if the trend continues, girls born this year will be 75 per cent more likely to enroll in higher education than their male peers.

“Higher education is a consistent predictor of greater civic participation, wellbeing and life expectancy. So the big gender gap should concern everyone. Policymakers in and outside universities need to address the challenges before they get any worse,” said Nick Robinson, who co-wrote the Higher Education Policy Institute report.

Although the report is clear that men are falling behind women at an alarming rate, the reasons for the trend are more difficult to fathom.

It involves a complex mix of neurology, psychology, culture, social science, politics and pedagogy – the method and practice of teaching, the report suggests.

The upgrading of the largely-female occupations of nursing and teaching to the status of graduate professions is also thought to have played a significant role.

“Many commentators, including me, have suggested that the dominance of women in the school workforce may play a role in boys’ underperformance relative to girls,” said Mary Curnock Cook, chief executive of the UCAS admissions system for universities and colleges. “While this report does not find evidence to support the theory, I remain instinctively convinced that, as in any other area of life, gender imbalance will itself generate further imbalance,” she added.

Just as the performance of boys at GCSE has declined in recent years relative to the girls, so the proportion of female teachers has increased.

The underperformance of boys begins in primary schools and carries on into higher education, she says.