The Struggle of Colleges and Universities to Enroll Men is Worsening
“While women have outpaced men in college enrollment and completion rates for decades, the pandemic appears to have worsened this disparity”
It’s very easy to understand why so many young men are choosing something other than college. And yet women are still often treated like a marginalized minority, when they’re actually the majority on campus.
Insight Into Diversity reports:
The Enrollment Crisis for Men Continues to Worsen
In October 2021, researchers at the Brookings Institution declared that the gender gap in higher education has widened to the point of becoming a “male college crisis,” with many men lacking the support necessary to achieve a postsecondary degree.
While women have outpaced men in college enrollment and completion rates for decades, the pandemic appears to have worsened this disparity, especially for men of color and those from underserved backgrounds in both urban and rural areas.
In fall 2021, the gender gap hit its peak, with men representing only 4 in 10 college students. Now, more advocates and education experts are joining in the call for policymakers to pay heed to this problem as growing numbers of young men — primarily those who are already low-income and disadvantaged — find themselves left behind academically and financially.
“We had a problem before the pandemic hit, but the pandemic has exacerbated problems profoundly,” Donald Guy Generals, president of the Community College of Philadelphia, said during a national webinar on Black male students hosted by the National Alliance of Community and Technical Colleges in July 2021. He listed “finances, preparedness, and community support” as three factors preventing this demographic from enrolling and finishing degree programs.
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Comments
Men weren’t so much left behind as shoved out.
And women “need” college only because they all told each other they did.
Third wave feminism is working. Boys are being pushed through public school systems, emerging with diplomas yet no communication skills. Young men are doing the smart thing and focusing on acquiring a skill vs. going to college, amassing debt and emerging with a useless degree.
As a female, I myself would avoid college right now.
Take a look at any scholarship website and you won’t find a single one for white men but tens of thousands for women and minorities.
Scholarships for white men are racist you know.
So then, it’s the Rhodes Scholarship or nothing?
roughly 20 years ago, when I was still in college, I spent a lot of time considering going on to an advanced degree.
I considered teaching. No. The info on their websites made it very clear they only wanted people who agreed with them politically.
I considered history (actually military history). No. That was farther left then the teachers, if you can believe that.
I gave some thought to forensic psychology. Ummm … never mind.
The insanity had a profound impact on my choices. It’s gotten worse since then.
I think you mixed up the worlds “struggle” and “goal” and the words “worsening” and “working as intended”
For years I have maintained that the class we should most worry about in this country is young white men. That was because of this enrollment gap in college; the fact that Hispanics have taken most of the trade jobs away – as in construction – or technology has materially reduced them – as in auto repair; and, of course, affirmative discrimination. Now that these kids are all racists or white supremacists, it will be even worse.
I’m less worried about the future of the men who are skipping college than I am about the women who aren’t.