Australia’s higher education sector, including TAFE and universities, is increasingly female-dominated, the latest World Bank data reveals.
In 2012, 56.7 per cent of students in Australia’s tertiary institutions were female, which was the highest on record.
In comparison, Australia's population has only marginally more women - 50.2 per cent in June 2013 - according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' latest population estimates.
The data from the World Bank’s latest education statistics package shows Australia’s tertiary institutions are increasingly female-dominated; however, other countries are more so.
Proportions of female students in the United States and New Zealand were higher in 2012 compared to Australia.
An estimated 50.5 per cent of students in tertiary education across the world were female in 2012, the World Bank data indicates.
Universities Australia Deputy Chief Executive, Anne-Marie Lansdown, said they were pleased to see the rising rate of participation from women in university study.
“It is a marked improvement on where we were several decades ago, and with the current policy environment of uncapped places this figure should improve further," Ms Lansdown said.
But there was no place for complacency and there were several fields of study that were ‘hard to reach’ for female students, Ms Lansdown said.
“The hard sciences, technology and engineering and mathematics are still overwhelmingly studied by men, which means that these fields, vital to Australia’s future, are missing out on a great deal of potential talent.”
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