University with Gender Perspective: Women Prefer Healthcare and Teaching, Men Opt for Business Administration and Engineering

It is quite common to think that certain university degrees are more popular among women and others among men. To confirm or debunk this myth, one only needs to consult the pre-registration report annually prepared by the Directorate General of Universities in the Comunitat. This report includes various data, such as the segmentation of the most requested and allocated degrees by both men and women.

In summary, regarding public universities in Alicante, it can be said that while women lean more towards the socio-healthcare and teaching fields, men opt for engineering and Business Administration.

Starting with females, the most requested degree for the 2024-25 academic year in our province has been Nursing at the University of Alicante (UA), with a total of 862 applications. This is the fourth most requested degree by women in the entire Comunitat, closely followed by the Medicine degree at Miguel Hernández University (UMH) in Elche (814 applications), and its counterpart at UA (541).

In absolute numbers, these are significant figures. However, in relative terms, it is the Speech Therapy degree at UA that garners the highest proportion of female applications, with 93.48% and 86 applications. This is the degree with the greatest gender disparity in favor of women across the entire Comunitat. It is followed by Occupational Therapy at UMH (92.21%) and Early Childhood Education at UA (90.24%).

Moving on to allocations, the most notable degree is Primary Education at UA, with 325 allocations; followed by Early Childhood Education, also at UA, with 301. In relative terms, again, Speech Therapy at UA is predominant among women (94.29%), followed by a Degree in Management, Technology, and Fashion at UMH (92.5%); and Social Work at UA (88.75%).

On the other side of the spectrum, we find that Sport Sciences at UA is the most requested among men, with 327 applications; followed by Medicine at UMH (323).

Excluding the Double Degree in Political Science and Public Management and Business Administration at UMH, which has only one application from a man, the most requested degree in percentage terms is Computer Engineering in Information Technologies at UMH, with 98.25%, followed also by Electronic Engineering and Industrial Automation at UMH (86.89%).

In terms of allocations, Business Administration at UA stands out with 208 allocations. Alongside it is Computer Engineering with 158.

In percentage terms, with 88%, Computer Engineering in Information Technologies at UMH is the most allocated to men, followed by Computer Engineering at UA (83.16%), the double degree in Computer Engineering and Business Administration at UA (82%); and Electronic Engineering and Industrial Automation at UMH (80%).