英國大學男生比例走低 或成“弱勢羣體”

英國大專院校招生服務機構負責人表示，申請大學學位課程的男生比例下降或讓男生在教育方面處於“弱勢”地位，從而影響其社會生存狀況，因爲大學畢業生的收入通常都高於未接受高等教育的普通員工。該機構統計數據顯示，今年英國國內申請大學的學生中，女生比男生多出8萬多人，而且這一趨勢還將繼續。英國14所大學已在招生計劃中明確設定目標要多招收男生，尤其定向於小學教師的培養課程中，希望能有更多男教師在初期教育階段爲男孩子樹立榜樣。這位負責人指出，男女在學習成績方面的差異也值得關注，“女生在小學和中學階段的成績都優於男生，自然就導致女生進入大學的比例高於男生”。英國入學公平辦公室負責人介紹說，英國大學法律專業的學生中有70%是女生，護理專業90%的學生是女生，“這種性別差異應該值得關注”。

UK universities are setting targets to recruit more men as male students are increasingly becoming the “disadvantaged group” in education.

Mary Curnock Cook, the head of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), said she was “very worried” about the decline in the proportion of young men applying for places on degree courses.

The trend has significant implications for society because university graduates are expected to earn far more than workers without degrees, the Commons business select committee was warned.

Ms Curnock Cook intervened as it was disclosed that 14 universities had targets to recruit more men. The initiative is part of a drive to train more men as primary school teachers to provide role models for young boys.

So far this year 80,000 more women have applied to universities in the UK than men and the trend is likely to grow, according to Ucas figures.

Of the 558,898 candidates who applied to university by the January deadline this year, 319,752, or 57.2 percent, were women. Some 239,146, or 42.8 percent, were men.

In evidence to the select committee, Ms Curnock Cook said gender gap “appears to be getting worse”.

“I am very worried about the gap between males and females,” she said.

“We are beginning to look at men as looking more like the disadvantaged group and women looking more like the advantaged group.”

The gap in test scores persists throughout primary and secondary education, she said.

“Females are outperforming males in primary and secondary education and of course that is feeding through into participation into higher education as well,” she said.

“It is a very deep seated issue. I think it requires more focus across all of education provision as to why boys are underperforming.”

Universities that charge higher tuition fees of more than £6,000 a year are required to sign contracts with the Office for Fair Access (Offa), in order to ensure that disadvantaged groups are not deterred from applying for courses by the high price of a degree.

Prof Les Ebdon, the director of Offa, told the committee that 14 universities had set specific gender targets in future, most of which are designed to increase the number of men training to be primary school teachers.

“I agree with them because I think the role models which are set early in life often lead to the aspirations of young people,” Prof Ebdon said. “It would be good to have more male role models in our primary schools.”

Prof Ebdon said 70 percent of law students and 90 percent of nursing students were women. The gender cap was “something that we should be concerned about”.