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

  • 12 May 2016
  • By Nick Hillman and Nicholas Robinson, with a Foreword by Mary Curnock Cook
  • HEPI number 84

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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3 comments

  1. 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

  2. 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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