Enrollments in Higher Education Are Down But the Gender Gap Has Widened

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has released its new report on student enrollments in U.S. higher education. The data shows that enrollments in U.S. higher education have dropped for the sixth year in a row. However, the data shows that the rate of decline has been reduced. Enrollments in the fall of 2017 were just 1 percent lower than in the fall of 2016.

The report provides enrollment data broken down by gender. The data show that there were 10,787,270 women enrolled in higher education this fall compared to 8,024,010 men. Thus, women were 57.3 percent of total enrollments in higher education. In 2017, enrollments of women were down 0.7 percent from a year ago. Male enrollments were down by 1.5 percent, more than double the rate for women.

Women held an even larger share of total enrollments at private, nonprofit colleges and universities. At these institutions, women made up 59.1 percent of all students. And women’s enrollments at these private, nonprofit colleges and universities remained steady while male enrollments at these schools declined by nearly 1 percent.

Women were 55.7 percent of all students at four-year state operated colleges and universities and 57 percent of total enrollments at two-year public colleges.

Women were 67 percent of all enrollments in for-profit educational institutions, but women’s enrollments at these for-profit institutions was down by 6 percent.

Filed Under: EnrollmentsResearch/Study

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  1. lynn oliver says:

    The problem begins in infancy with much differential treatment. It is not genetics or effort. This problem, like many other social problems are created by the myth of genetics in ability which has become a false dogma in our schools. We need to remove the myth of genetics from our schools and from the minds of parents. Then we need to begin instructing parents, teachers, and students how we can continually approach our lives more delicately in different ways to continually improve and change our lives over time. Unless we change the way we are treating boys from infancy, many more boys/men will lose in the information age along with many more harmful escapes and deaths from those escapes.
    The belief boys should be strong allows aggressive treatment from infancy so they will be tough. There is less verbal interaction support for fear of coddling. This creates high, maintained layers of average stress for boys (new thought will send to all). These layers remain in the mind taking away real mental energy from academics so they will have to work harder to receive the same mental reward. This treatment creates emotional distance of others. It creates lags in communication girls are given daily. The high stress creates activity for stress relief not genetics. This creates higher muscle tension which hurts handwriting motivation. The effect with false genetic models creates more failure and hopelessness. To make it tougher boys are given love honor feelings of self-worth only on condition of achievement. This was designed to keep Male esteem low and be willing to give their lives in war for love honor from society. Males not achieving are given ridicule and discipline to make them try harder. Support is not given for fear of coddling. Many boys falling behind turn their attention to sports and video games for small measures of love honor not received in school. The belief boys should be strong and false belief in genetics create denial of the harsh treatment which is creating the low academics low esteem and other problems for boys. This is not about more openness from boys; it is about society allowing aggressive treatment from infancy so boys feel much wariness toward parents teachers who freely use aggressive treatment for any sign of weakness. This is condoned by society. This problem is affecting all male children but the lower the socioeconomic bracket and time in lower areas the much more amplified the treatment given male children by parents/teachers.
    As girls we are given much support and care by parents teachers peers. As girls we are treated better and so enjoy support from society. Since we as girls are given by differential treatment much mental social/emotional support verbal interaction and care this creates the opposite outcome for girls when compared with boys. We receive love honor simply for being girls. This creates all of the good things. We have lower average stress for ease of learning. We enjoy much freedom of expression from much protection by society. We enjoy lower muscle tension for ease in writing motivation to write. We enjoy much positive trust/communication from parents teachers and support for perceived weaknesses. We are reaping a bonanza in the information age. Now with girls and women taking over many areas of society we enjoy more lavishing of love honor from society while boys and men are now failing more and are given more ridicule and abuse by society. Mind you this is now coming from girls and women using our still protected freedoms of expression and more with false feelings of superiority.

  2. Nick says:

    It is simpler than all that. Society as a whole has become increasingly feminized and thus rewards feminine behavior. By contrast any naturally aggressive behavior is suppressed and labelled as ‘toxic’. Females are rewarded because the educational system, especially in k-8, are overwhelmingly dominated by women. I would be willing to wager that in addition to that most teachers are socially progressive and are thus invested in further feminization of boys on purely ideological grounds. By the time boys get to high school they have either caved to behaving in a feminine manner or are largely considered ‘problem kids’. Boys turn to Sports and video games because, in absence of any true traditional male guidance, these are the only outlets to express naturally aggressive male tendencies. traditional positive male role models were aggressive conquerors, trailblazers, adventurers and scientists. Now most male role models are ‘Action heroes’ whose only skill is shooting as many ‘bad guys’ as possible. At this point even criminality (i.e. the anti-hero) is lauded. Culture and society has evolved such that men have no trails to blaze or territories to conquer (except perhaps in science, which itself has taken on an effeminate sensibility). Given such a world how are boys to grow and thrive?

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