It’s now official: men are checking out of higher education in Britain.
According to the daunting study by the Higher Education Policy Institute, women are now 35% more likely to go to university than men. Men are also more likely to drop out, or get a lower degree mark when they graduate.
The gender gap is even greater among the least advantaged: young girls are 51% more likely to attend university than boys.
A mere 9% of young white men from disadvantaged backgrounds make it to higher education.
This shouldn’t surprise us. Who would actually go to a place that has waged a war against young men?
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There are normally a couple of reasons given why young men aren’t flooding university lecture halls.
Underperformance in school is one. Seeing debts approaching £50,000 as an unworthy investment is another one.
But we shouldn’t ignore that the chilling environment of university campuses that treat men with contempt adds to scepticism of higher education.
Across most of British universities, men are, without a hint of irony, forced to attend sexual consent classes to hear what they already know.
After such classes, men are still looked at with suspicion that they might be the greatest evils of campus – lads and blokes.
Faculty administrations working in tact with students union are devoted to fighting “lad culture” – or things men actually enjoy – and create new rules to curb behavior.
It’s now become normal to ban rugby clubs, prohibit offensive and blokey jokes, and limit alcohol consumption based on imaginary rape epidemic on campuses.
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Most universities also adopted intrusive National Union of Students’ policy and definition of harassment that made “innuendos”, “offensive gestures”, and “offensive sexual noises” an act of sexual harassment.
These rules kill any chance of lively campus life.
Every student, especially men, must now constantly try not to appear out-of-line and remain reserved.
Men can’t be blamed for thinking twice whether they want to go to a place for years where they will be under constant supervision for who they are.
It’s clear that the way to bring boys back to higher education is getting rid of these bizarre and intrusive campus rules.
University is for men too – a place where they should be allowed to act daft and be lads.
Photo courtesy Shaylor/Flickr