Women’s enrolment at university declined in 2020

Women’s Agenda 14 November 2020

The number of enrolments in Australian tertiary education has dropped in 2020, with the number of women engaging in study declining at a faster rate than men, writes Madeline Hislop for Women’s Agenda.

According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), female enrolment in tertiary education dropped by 86,000 when comparing May 2020 to May 2019. Comparatively, the number of male students dropped by much less, at just 21,200. Overall, Australians are studying less in 2020, with the total number of tertiary students dropping by 112,500 people over the same period. Women make up three-quarters of the overall student decline.

The ABS data comes from the Survey of Education and Work, run during the first two weeks of May 2020, and includes those studying at university and some vocational courses. The data shows that the nature of declining student enrolments in Australia is highly gendered, and it’s women over the age of 25 who have seen the greatest drop, by 59,200 enrolments. And while there are fewer younger men enrolled in 2020 than 2019, there has been an increase in the numbers of older men (over the age of 25) enrolled in study, up 26,000.
Full report on the Women’s Agenda site

Receive email updates from UWN

Global newsletters    Africa newsletters    Other
    (other includes related events and webinars)

Data will be processed according to our standard terms & conditions.

Sponsored Article

Commitment, growth and shared lessons in African HE

Ashesi University staff

The Education Collaborative, an initiative started by Ashesi University in Ghana in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, is one of Africa’s biggest platforms of higher education stakeholders. Since 2017, the Collaborative has led a new model for collaboration in African higher education that is helping to grow the strength of the ecosystem.

Sponsored Article

Research focuses on production of jet fuel from halophytes

UAE University staff

With an eye to developing a clean, alternative aviation fuel to reduce carbon emissions, researchers at the United Arab Emirates University have been focusing on the production of jet fuel from sustainable resources such as halophytes, which are salt-tolerant plants that could be cultivated on a wider scale in the region’s coastal areas.

Sponsored Article

The value of being human: How teachers can work alongside AI

Michael Milligan

Artificial intelligence is now a part of our evolution in technology and teachers need to be encouraged to find ways to bring AI into the classroom and have students use it in a way that is beneficial to them in the long term.

Sponsored Article

Ground-breaking research on seawater biodesalination

UAE University staff

As water scarcity reaches critical levels globally, a research team at the United Arab Emirates University seeks to revolutionise seawater desalination practices, offering a path to mitigate water scarcity while championing environmental preservation.