GCSEs blamed for boys not going to university

Study suggests that the end of O-levels led to a gender achievement gap
GCSE exams, Maidstone Grammar School, Kent
Male students sitting GCSE exams at Maidstone Grammar School, Kent. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe / Rex Features

Tens of thousands of boys who ought to be capable of succeeding at university never make it because of school exams, according to a report today.

The Higher Education Policy Institute report suggests that GCSEs, introduced in 1988 in place of O-levels, appear to favour girls because of the style of teaching, content and types of question. The exams are the "most likely cause" of an achievement gap between the sexes that starts at school but carries on into adulthood, it concludes. The result is that men are less likely to go to university and less likely to do well when they get there.

"I think we are in danger of creating an underclass," Professor Bahram Bekhradnia, institute director and co-author of the report, writes in today's Observer. "Higher education brings social benefits as well as academic ones. If you have been to university, you tend to be in better physical and mental health. It has a terrific socialising effect and, by not going to university in such large numbers, men are being deprived of that. I think it is a real shame."

The study found that last year 130,000 more men would have needed to enter full-time higher education for their participation rate to be the same as women's. "That is really significant," said Bekhradnia. "Unless you believe that boys are actually more stupid than girls, they ought to be capable of the same levels of achievement. So what could the reason be?"

He argued there was little evidence that other factors such as A-levels or attitudes towards employment were stopping boys from going to university. Instead, he pointed to GCSEs as a likely culprit in England and Wales.


"I think GCSEs look as if they are implicated," argued Bekhradnia. "And if there is a suggestion that the nature of GCSEs is disadvantaging boys and meaning that they do less well in school, then that needs to be dealt with, because these kids are missing out."

However, he said exams could not entirely explain the phenomenon, as gender gaps of varying sizes existed in countries with different systems.

The study finds that 37.8% of men participate in higher education, compared to 49.2% for women. The trend exists for part-time and full-time further education across all ages and races and among the rich and poor. At university, women continue to outperform men.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, supported Bekhradnia, arguing that it was right to review assessment systems in order to level the playing field between boys and girls.

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