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**Hepi analysis finds huge gap between male and female higher education access rates**
Half a million young men have missed out on higher education in the past 10 years because of differences in educational achievement with their female peers, an analysis by the Higher Education Policy Institute has suggested.
In a report published on 20 March, Hepi analysed how many more men would have gone to university if their higher education participation matched the higher levels seen among women.
According to Ucas data, about 44,000 fewer UK-domiciled men than women aged under 19 accepted a place at a UK higher education institution in 2024-25, the report states. However, because there are marginally more men than women born each year, if men were to go on to higher education in the same proportions, there would actually be a greater number of male students than female students.
“As a result, the gap between what currently happens and full equity stands at around 55,000 missing men each year,” the report states. “In other words, there have been half a million ‘missing men’ over the past decade as a whole.”
Report co-author Mark Brooks, a policy adviser on men’s health and inclusion issues, said the underachievement of men had become “a truth that dare not speak its name”.
“Each year, it can be clearly seen when the exams results and higher education participation rates are published,” he said. “Nationally, though, there is little discussion or accountability, let alone any action.”
Mary Curnock Cook, a former chief executive of Ucas, said: “If we want to advance equality between the sexes, we need to educate men as well as women. That is why ignoring the worsening gulf between education outcomes for boys and young men compared to their female peers is no longer an option.”
The report calls for funding grassroots initiatives aimed at raising the standard of boys’ education, a greater focus on gender disparities in universities’ Access and Participation Plans, and a strategy for men’s education at Westminster, “overseen by a new minister for men and boys or the existing ministers for equalities”.