Canadian University /Colleges

Why Males Don't Go to College

By Glenn Sacks, Thursday, October 7, 2004, This column first appeared in She Thinks (11/13/02)

As the percentage of males on our college campuses continues to decline, many observers are finally beginning to ask questions. Much of the discussion has focused on the fact that boys at all levels K-12 have fallen seriously behind their female counterparts, and how our schools are not meeting boys' needs. This discussion of males' educational problemsparticularly the problems of low-income and minority malesis long overdue, and boys' sagging educational performance is one of the main reasons for the increasing disappearance of male students from our college campuses. Read More ..

Missing: Males on College Campuses

FOX News, U.S.A., Wednesday, June 15, 2005, By Wendy McElroy

Some researchers call them the "Lost Boys." They are the students you don't see on college campuses.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) tracks the enrollment in all degree-granting institutions by sex. From 1992 to 2000, the ratio of enrolled males to females fell from 82 to 78 boys for every 100 girls. The NCES projects that in 2007 the ratio will be 75 males for every 100 females; in 2012, 74 per 100.

In short, your son is statistically more likely than your daughter to work a blue collar job.

Thomas Mortenson, senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, argues that leaving a generation of boys behind hurts women as well. In a Business Week cover story, Mortenson observed, "My belief is that until women decide that the education of boys is a serious issue, nothing is going to happen."

He believes some women feel threatened by even admitting the problem because "it will take away from the progress of women...What everyone needs to realize is that if boys continue to slide, women will lose too." Read More ..

Mysterious Decline-Where Are the Men on Campus?

National Post, by Philip W. Cook and Glenn Sacks, April 29, 2003

The Trend is Clear

Everybody wants to know where all the men have gone. The Washington Post calls their disappearance the "question that has grown too conspicuous to ignore," and USA Today notes "universities fret about how to attract males as women increasingly dominate campuses."

Females now outnumber males by a four to three ratio in American colleges, a difference of almost two million students. Men earn only 43% of all college degrees. Among blacks, two women earn bachelor's degrees for every man. Among Hispanics, only 40 percent of college graduates are male. Female high school graduates are 16% more likely to go to college than their male counterparts.

"This is new. We have thrown the gender switch," says Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men. "What does it mean in the long run that we have females who are significantly more literate, significantly more educated than their male counterparts? It is likely to create a lot of social problems. This does not bode well for anyone." Read More ..

Help for 1st-generation college students

Canadian Press, KEITH LESLIE, Aug. 30, 2006. 05:15 PM

Young people in Ontario will be encouraged to become the first in their family to attend university or college under a $5-million program for so-called first-generation students, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced Wednesday.

The money will go to the post-secondary institutions and to church groups, cultural centres and other community-based organizations to help identify people who could be helped to return to college or university, or to become an apprentice.

"It's all about funding programs designed to reach out into the community and to lend a hand to first-generation students, and to provide them with the necessary encouragement and the necessary supports so that they can pursue their studies," McGuinty told students and staff at Seneca College in Toronto.

"It's more than just the right thing to do, it's a powerful economic strategy at the beginning of the 21st century in our knowledge-based economy."

Another $1 million in first-generation student bursaries, which the government estimates will help some 450 people in obtaining a higher education, will be made available for the new academic year. Read More ..

Maclean's Magazine June 26, 2006 issue

Statistics on Aboriginal University / College Students

"Although post-secondary participation rates for Aboriginal youth lag behind the rest of the population, the number of Aboriginal students at post-secondary institutions has risen sharply over the last 40 years. In the mid-1960s, approximately 200 First Nations student were enrolled in colleges and universities. By 2000, the number had climbed to more than 27,000. The average Aboriginal student is older than the rest of the population - age 25.8 - and almost 72 percent are female. In addition, roughly half are either married or in a long-term relationship, and 30 percent have children.