By YEUK Ambassador Indy
In 2012, the coalition government took an incredibly controversial decision in transferring the majority of the cost of courses from the state to the students. This meant that every university student in England would be charged around 9,000 per year for their tuition fees. As you all may be aware, it caused a tremendous amount of uproar amongst students. This initially led to a decline in the number of university applicants. Predictably university applications from students in the UK in 2012 fell by 8.9% compared to 2011 figures as reported by the admissions services
Undeniably one of the most important factors that have appeared since the initiations of these reforms is the increasing gender gap within higher education. In relation to the growth of the gender gap recent reports have continuously stressed that men are more likely to become the ‘disadvantaged group’ in terms of university attendance. The number of girls in search of a university place this year is more than a third larger than that of boys. Interestingly statistics reveal that 580,000 people have applied for university this year. Approximately 333,700 of them are women compared with only 246,300 men in which the difference totals to 87,000.
The question is WHY?
The answer to this question among many educationalists has been in connection to achievement patterns in schools: girls tend to outperform boys in their GCSEs and therefore are more likely to attain better A-level results. Nevertheless in my view that should not be used as an excuse to simply ignore this issue. In order to understand the reasons behind the increasing gap, it is vital to firstly take into account the views of these young people. They should be given an opportunity to communicate the struggles and frustration they face when deciding whether or not to apply to university. It is extremely important to take into consideration whether or not students are given the right guidance and support from their schools or colleges when going through this process. Moreover are students provided with enough information and support on alternative routes they can take if they decide not to apply for university? Unfortunately this prospect at the moment is exceptionally doubtful.
Additionally another explanation for this gap leans towards ‘Apprenticeships’. Data released by the National Apprenticeship service reveals that over 1.4 million applications have been made for vacancies in the past 12 months. Compared to last year’s result, the number of applications has increased by almost a third. It is not a known secret that men compared to women have increasingly been in the majority in regards to vocational qualifications. Recent results published have exhibited that men tend to opt for apprenticeships in areas like engineering. They tend to prefer to learn through more practical initiatives than simply taking the traditional option of university. However the question which instantly appears, is could universities do more in terms of adding more practical alternatives to the structure of a degree?
Interestingly the number of university applicants as a whole has been reported to have increased by over 4%, an overall of 58,000 applicants for this year. Nonetheless there is still much left to do in order to decrease the growing gender gap between applicants.
Be it the academic or vocational route an individual chooses to further their career aspirations, the final destination the two paths lead to ultimately depend on you. Make the most out of the opportunities you are presented with and use them to your advantage.
