The table charts illustrate how many students were distributed to UK universities in terms of genders and kind of study from 1996/97 to 2009/10. Overall, full-time enrollments for both genders rose steadily over the period, while part-time figures showed fluctuation, with male part-time numbers varying and female part-time peaking in 2005/06 before falling slightly by 2009/10.
In terms of full-time students, 75,370 male postgraduates pursued full-time, compared to 62,344 females postgraduates in 1996/97. The figure for male postgraduates rose significantly, increasing from 87,070 in 2000/01 to 1,15,550 in 2005/06 before ending at 1,51,275 in the final year. A similar trend can be seen in the figure for female full-time students, whose numbers increased dramatically from 82,215 in 2000/01 to 1,18,675 in 2005/06 before skycrocketing to 1,46,980 by 2009/10.
Regarding part-time students, the number of male postgraduate students started at 1,13,961 in 1996/97, after which the figure declined to 1,08,770 in 2000/01 before bouncing back to1,38,505 in 2005/06 and ended at 1,17,105 in 2009/10. By contrast, female part-time numbers witnessed a fluctuating change, where the figure increased from 1,08,702 in 1996/97 to 1,25,855 in 2000/01 and reached a peak of 1,72,640 in 2005/06 before decreasing negligbly to 1,63,240 in the final year.