Boys to Men: The underachievement of young men in higher education – and how to start tackling it

HEPI Number:
84
Author:
Nick Hillman and Nicholas Robinson, with a Foreword by Mary Curnock Cook
Published:
View Executive Summary (PDF)

Young men are significantly less likely to enter higher education than young women, and they are also more likely to drop out and less likely to achieve a highly-graded degree.

There are many causes and the disparity in educational achievement starts long before higher education. Yet, while this issue is better understood than it was, there has been a shortage of ideas on how to tackle it.

This new paper looks at the data and the causes before making seven specific policy recommendations.

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Comments

  • Julie Vuolo says:

    There is no date of publication on the actual report that I can see. I know the page post says 2016, can you confirm that this is date of publication so thatr we can cite it correctly please?
    Many thanks

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  • Nick Hillman says:

    The publication date for this report is as at the top of this page – the report came out on Thursday, 12 May 2016. Many thanks for your interest in the report. Our latest report on the same topic, from March 2025, is here: https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/03/20/half-a-million-men-have-missed-out-on-higher-education/

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