Overview

Action on Access, building initially on resources from the Aimhigher East Midlands Regional website and the work done by Neil Raven and his team, has established the Boys into HE web pages on the Action on Access website. These pages contain a wealth of resources on the topic to support those working for wider participation in education, including news on projects, good practice and reports, publications and other resources.

A glance through the newspapers or a scroll through online sources is likely to reveal headlines such as 'Failing Boys Put University Drive in Doubt' or 'Concerns as Boys Shun University'. For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries higher education had been a predominately male domain. However, been there has been a significant increase in the representation of woman to the point where they now outnumber men in HE. In 2005/06 57.8% of First Year UK Domiciled Undergraduate Student were female, where as 42.2% were male. Male participation rates have risen only 0.5% over the last seven years whilst the comparable figure for female participation has increased by around 7%

There has been much debate as to the underlying causes of this situation, but one factor is abundantly clear, right throughout their educational journey boys when compared to girls generally under-perform in terms of attainment and are therefore less likely to progress to HE. This is simply illustrated by the statistics for GCSE attainment where boys have significantly and consistently underachieve in comparison to girls. In 2007 the numbers of 15 year olds achieving 5+ A* - C Grades at GCSE (or Equivalent) was 65.5% for Girls and 56.4% for boys a percentage difference of 9.1%. Full Table Breakdown

The main purpose of these webpages is to explore and signpost this and other information and resources relating to the gender gap in participation, the recent relative decline of the entry by boys into higher education, and current practice in the sector , including Overview, Boys in the News, Good Practice,Resources and New Boys Case Studies