White Working Class Males in British Higher Education working class males ’ although clearly a gap does remain ( Southampton Solent University , 2016b )
In summary , Southampton Solent University are attracting more male students when compared to the performance of the sector as a whole and the participation gap between white working class males and their advantaged peers is narrowing . Figures suggest that on course there appears to be a gender gap in relation to retention and attainment , a gap which favours female students . However , figures on ethnicity suggest that white students are more likely to continue in their studies and have higher levels of degree attainment than their non-white peers .
4.3 University of Portsmouth
Male students The most recent University of Portsmouth Equality and Diversity report ( Ross , 2016 ) provides demographic data for the undergraduate student population for the 2014 / 2015 academic year . Overall , the university had over 18,000 undergraduates with a gender ratio of 57 percent male to 43 percent female . As per Southampton Solent University , this ratio is significantly different from the national average for the 2014 / 2015 academic year , which was 43.8 percent male to 56.2 percent female ( HESA , 2016 ). According to HESA data ( Ratcliffe , 2013 ), only 6 higher education institutions in the United Kingdom ( out of 161 institutions for which data was available ) had undergraduate populations that included 57 percent ( or higher ) male students .
During the 2014 / 2015 academic year , out of 16,706 UK / EU undergraduates , 758 out of 9,355 UK / EU male students ( 8.1 percent ) withdrew from the University of Portsmouth , compared to 398 out of 7,351 UK / EU female students ( 5.4 percent ) ( Ross , 2016 ). Among the UK / EU students who withdrew that year , male students were more likely to indicate their reason for withdrawal as academic failure than female students ( 36 percent compared to 22 percent ) ( Ross , 2016 ). Related , among the UK / EU students who progressed to the next stage of their course during the 2014 / 2015 academic year , 77 percent of male students progressed compared with 84 percent of female students ( Ross , 2016 ). With regards to degree attainment , 74 percent of male graduates achieved a ' good degree ' ( a First or 2:1 ), compared with 78 percent of female graduates .
Overall , while the University of Portsmouth has higher numbers of UK / EU male students , they are more likely to withdraw from their course , less likely to progress to the next stage of their degree , and less likely to earn a First or a 2:1 degree compared with their female counterparts .
White , working class students
Within the University of Portsmouth Equality and Diversity Report , the UK and EU undergraduate students for the 2014 / 2015 academic year were 73 percent white . HESA ( 2016 ) statistics for the same academic year ( 2014 / 2015 ) indicate that UK undergraduates included 77.5 percent white students . However , this is not a direct comparison as the University of Portsmouth data includes EU students while the HESA data is for UK students only .
During the 2014 / 2015 academic year , 822 out of 12,160 UK / EU white students ( 6.8 percent ) withdrew from the University of Portsmouth , compared to 271 out of 3,613 UK / EU Black Minority Ethnic ( BME ) students ( 7.5 percent ) ( Ross , 2016 ). For white students who withdrew , the most selected reasons for withdrawal were personal ( 33 percent ), academic ( 27 percent ), and financial ( 21 percent ) ( Ross , 2016 ). White students were less likely to indicate their reason for withdrawal as academic failure than BME students ( 27 percent compared to 46 percent ) ( Ross , 2016 ).
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At the University of Portsmouth , among white students from UK neighbourhoods in which higher education participation is low , 89 percent progressed to the next stage of their course , compared with white students from high participation neighbourhoods among which 81 percent progressed and compared with BME students , 83 percent from low participation