UK: It's no surprise if men decide university isn't for them

Article here. Excerpt:

'Male students have become a rare breed in UK universities.

They were first outnumbered by women as far back as 1992 and, since then, the gender gap has increased annually.

Statistics released by Ucas last week show that this year almost 100,000 more women than men have applied for a university place. In England, women are 36 per cent more likely to submit an application than their male peers; among those from disadvantaged backgrounds this rises to 58 per cent.

Imagine for a minute what would happen if these figures were reversed. I have no doubt there would be panicked calls for an inquiry into what was causing such dramatic gender inequality. There would be demands for better outreach programmes, publicity campaigns and positive discrimination to get girls into higher education.

In reality, the news that boys are significantly less likely to apply to university has passed with little comment.

When the topic of gender and education first became a serious focus for research there was, quite understandably, a preoccupation with the under-representation of women in universities and the difficulties they encountered once there.'