Research compiled annually by the Office for National Statistics has this year revealed that the trend of men and women studying subjects seen as respectively masculine or feminine in Higher Education has yet to be bucked. It also revealed that women outnumber men on university undergraduate courses by 143,000.

The report indicates that degree programmes with the highest intake of male students were those related to business and administrative studies, closely followed by courses related to engineering, both traditionally ‘male’ subjects. Engineering courses account for 11.7% of all male students in the U.K, whereas women studying engineering make up only 1.7% of the U.K’s female student population.

The data also demonstrates female dominance in subjects allied to medicine and education; broadly including midwifery, nursing, and school teaching, all subjects considered as traditionally feminine studies. The findings would suggest that women are drawn towards studying subjects at University that include inherently nurturing aspects, whilst men have more interest in practical and business skills, an idea often thought outdated.

Additional statistics within the report indicate that the number of girls in further education (A-Levels or equivalent) exceeded the number of boys by 16,000 nationally. These figures however, are not reflected in university finals results, or indeed, in university employment trends. Data published by Oxford University in 2005 indicated that women made up only 10% of those employed as Professors at Oxford, whilst female English Literature students were repeatedly less successful than male students in the Oxford finals exams.

The Gender Equality Scheme for the University of Southampton states that: Reassurance then that the imbalance of male and female students studying certain courses does not give rise to unfair treatment or unequal opportunities amongst male and female students.

It would perhaps be deemed obsolete to even consider the idea that university courses are still very much engendered through tradition and popular practice, but the statistics demonstrating this very notion are impossible to ignore. In a time when gender equality is considered so important in all aspects of society, it is easy to forget that traditions are not easily broken; that it will take considerable time for there to be an equal gender ratio amongst engineering students for example, or as many men as women interested in nursing. What this report has made clear is that the gender gap in university courses is not an issue to be eliminated in the near future.