What do the World University Rankings tell us about gender equality? – Times Higher Education (THE)

What is the state of play when it comes toaccess tohigher education and acareer inacademia forwomen? When looking at the numbers ofuniversity students and faculty bygender on aglobal scale, the figures look positive but dig alittle deeper and inequities emerge.

Data from Times Higher Educations World University Rankings2022, submitted by1,662 universities from 99territories, reveal the regions and subjects in which women continue to face barriers to progression.

Across the world, nearly half (49per cent) of all university students are female, but theproportion of faculty is just over athird (37per cent), based on 2019 figures, exposing adrop-off between higher education and a career in academia.

Disappointingly, these proportions have not changed significantly over the past five years. In2015, women made up 48per cent of students and 35per cent offaculty.

These proportions vary somewhat by continent. When looking at the share of female students by region, all regions but one have above 50per cent: Oceania has the highest proportion, 55per cent, followed byAfrica (53per cent), Europe (52per cent), North America (51per cent) and South America (50per cent). Asia brings the global average down, with 45per cent female students. (The regional averages are calculated based on all institutions in the region, rather than country averages).

When it comes to faculty, Asia also has the lowest proportion of women, just 32per cent, followed by North America (41per cent) and Europe, South America and Africa (all tied at 42per cent). Although it has the highest proportion of female faculty at 46per cent, Oceania saw a slight drop of 0.2percentage point between 2018 and 2019. It was the only region torecord afall.

Broken down by subject, the ratios of male to female students and faculty vary considerably. Engineering, for example, has avery low proportion of female students and faculty, 25per cent and 20per cent, respectively. Computer science follows asimilar pattern, with 23per cent female students and 22per cent female academics.

On the other hand, arts and humanities, clinical and health, education, psychology and social sciences all have more than 50per cent female students across all continents. The highest proportion ofwomen studying is among psychology students in Europe 75percent.

Several subjects have fairly close to 50per cent representation among students, but a much smaller proportion of female academics. For example, 40per cent of physical science students are female, compared with 25per cent of faculty. Similarly, 45per cent of business and economics students are female but only 35per cent offaculty.

The biggest increase in the percentage of female staff was in psychology in North America (up from 43per cent in 2015 to 49per cent in 2019) and in clinical and health subjects in South America (49per cent to 54per cent).

Subjects that come within 10percentage points of 50per cent female academics all have significantly more than 50per cent female students. For example, 48per cent of clinical and health faculty are female, compared with 63per cent of the students; 43per cent of social sciences faculty are female, compared with 59per cent of students. This may suggest that achieving gender parity among faculty currently requires an over-representation of female students.

There are also some surprising variations by subject within regions. For example, in Africa and South America, 30per cent and 31per cent of engineering students, respectively, are female, while in Oceania the figure is just 19.4per cent. Africa has the highest proportion of female computer science faculty, 37per cent, while Europe has the lowest, 21percent.

rosa.ellis@timeshighereducation.com

A Times Higher Education report on how global universities are performing on gender equality, based on data collected for the THEImpact Rankings, will be published and launched at a webinar on International WomensDay on 8March. Register toattend.

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What do the World University Rankings tell us about gender equality? - Times Higher Education (THE)