Published on the Guardian datablog site today, some data about gender of students, the subjects that they study and their attainment .
The table below shows the changes in student numbers over the last 5 years, both by gender and total number of students
Interesting points? The only subject areas to show overall decline are computer science and combined awards. the latter can be explained by the he move fo so many institutions towards a tighter more managed portfolio of awards. The former is a worry – we know that there is a shortage of well qualified computer scientists, and we have the very real problem of working with schools to get young people to recognise what the subject is actually about (not ICT!)
| Higher education qualifications obtained by students (postgrad and undergrad) in the UK by gender and subject area, 2011/12 | ||||||||
| Number of female students | Number of male students | Total students | % female | % male | % change in female students from 2006-07/ 2011-12 | % change in male students from 2006-07/ 2011-12 | % change in students from 2006-07/ 2011-12 | |
| Medicine & dentistry | 10650 | 7555 | 18200 | 58.5 | 41.5 | 31.7 | 28.6 | 30.4 |
| Subjects allied to medicine | 68470 | 17280 | 85750 | 79.8 | 20.2 | -2.4 | 21.7 | 1.6 |
| Biological sciences | 34450 | 20970 | 55420 | 62.2 | 37.8 | 23.5 | 38.8 | 28.9 |
| Veterinary science | 875 | 255 | 1135 | 77.1 | 22.5 | 52.2 | -3.8 | 35.1 |
| Agriculture & related subjects | 3635 | 2255 | 5885 | 61.8 | 38.3 | 24.7 | 22.9 | 23.9 |
| Physical sciences | 11110 | 15100 | 26210 | 42.4 | 57.6 | 18.6 | 27.5 | 23.6 |
| Mathematical sciences | 4720 | 6765 | 11485 | 41.1 | 58.9 | 38.6 | 25.9 | 30.8 |
| Computer science | 5750 | 24765 | 30520 | 18.8 | 81.1 | -11.1 | -0.2 | -2.4 |
| Engineering & technology | 8595 | 42085 | 50680 | 17.0 | 83.0 | 36.0 | 30.3 | 31.2 |
| Architecture, building & planning | 7340 | 14405 | 21745 | 33.8 | 66.2 | 30.8 | 27.1 | 28.4 |
| Total – Science subject areas | 155585 | 151440 | 307025 | 50.7 | 49.3 | 10.5 | 23.2 | 16.4 |
| Social studies | 46255 | 27485 | 73740 | 62.7 | 37.3 | 22.7 | 21.1 | 22.1 |
| Law | 19585 | 13480 | 33065 | 59.2 | 40.8 | 8.0 | 10.5 | 9.0 |
| Business & administrative studies | 69655 | 70370 | 140020 | 49.7 | 50.3 | 41.8 | 45.0 | 43.3 |
| Mass communications & documentation | 11815 | 8090 | 19905 | 59.4 | 40.6 | 27.9 | 33.4 | 30.1 |
| Languages | 25345 | 11495 | 36845 | 68.8 | 31.2 | 14.8 | 22.7 | 17.2 |
| Historical & philosophical studies | 15000 | 13170 | 28170 | 53.2 | 46.8 | 8.3 | 15.5 | 11.6 |
| Creative arts & design | 37755 | 23535 | 61285 | 61.6 | 38.4 | 32.2 | 30.5 | 31.5 |
| Education | 61430 | 18915 | 80340 | 76.5 | 23.5 | 13.7 | 3.8 | 11.2 |
| Combined | 4100 | 2705 | 6810 | 60.2 | 39.7 | -14.0 | -17.4 | -15.4 |