The tables compare the number of male and female postgraduate students across two modes of study, namely full-time and part-time, in UK universities from 1996 to 2010.
What is most striking when looking at the data is that the number of full-time students in both genders experienced a considerable growth, while that of part-time students had a sizable fluctuation. It is also important to note that part-time figures remain higher than full-time figures, leaving aside the 2009/2010 session.
Focusing first on full-time figures, male students start with 75370, which is 13000 higher than female. Male full-time enrolment, then, rose steadily to 87070 in 2000/2001 before surging to 115550 in 2005/2006, and reached its peak in 2009/2010, at 151275, which nearly doubled its starting point. In terms of female full-time students, the enrolment had an identical pattern. These figures increased gradually to 85215 in 2000/2001 before soaring to 118675 and 146980 in 2005/2006 and 2009/2010, respectively.
Turning to part-time students, male students numbered 113961 in the first session, while it was 108702 for females. Male’s figures lately fell to 108770 in the next session before surging to its peak, at 138505 in 2005/2006 and then going down to 117105 in the last examined session. In contrast, the number of female part-time students continued to increase significantly, 125855 in 2000/2001 and 172640 in 2005/2006, before experiencing a modest decline in 2009/2010, at 163340.