UAE Business: Global universities address gender equality, but gaps remain – Gulf Digital News

UAE Business: Global universities address gender equality, but gaps remain – Gulf Digital News

Female students outnumber male students in universities, but there is a significant ‘humanities bias’ for female students, said a research.

Some 54% of students awarded a degree in 2019 were women. However, women tend to choose humanities over science. The share of female students who undertake science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) degrees (30%) is still 24 percentage points lower than the share of female students undertaking arts, humanities and social sciences (AHSS) degrees (54%), said research released by the Unesco International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) and Times Higher Education (THE). 

Most universities (83%) track women’s application, acceptance and completion rates or have women´s access schemes, such as mentoring or scholarships (81%). 

However, less than two-thirds track women’s graduation rates compared with men´s and have plans to close the gap. 

The presence of women in the student population does not translate into their presence in academia and university leadership positions. Less than two-fifths of senior academics (professors, deans, chairs and senior university leaders) and less than a third of authors in research papers are women, evidencing a significant gender gap.

Universities also report on institution-wide policies and services that promote gender