Gender differences in enrolement in university science related courses

Abstract

In this study research was conducted to investigate why there is a gender gap in enrolment in the science related courses offered by the University of Malta. Grades obtained in Mathematics and science subjects at Secondary Education Certificate level, Intermediate and Advanced levels for a period of six years by all students sitting for these subjects were analysed for differences according to gender. One could already notice the gender bias in sciences in both enrolment and performance. In the first part of the study, the methodology used was a qualitative one. Twelve interviews were carried out with six male and six female students enrolled in six different science courses at the University of Malta. The responses to the interview questions were used to construct a questionnaire intended to investigate the views and influences experienced by students enrolled in science related courses at the University of Malta. This was carried out through a survey using the questionnaire as the tool of data collection. After piloting the finalised three paged questionnaire was distributed to university students from seven different science related courses. Responses from 218 students were analysed for difference according to gender and course. Most male students were mainly influenced by male role models in their choice of profession. Other conclusions were that the exact same proportion of male and female students (1:3.3) would prefer a gender balance in their course; however 7% of the male students who took part in this study said that they would not prefer a gender balance in their course compared to the 2% of the female students. Several students said that if they would have been of the opposite sex, they would have not enrolled in the same course. Influence of grades obtain