Gender and science at the University of Malta

Abstract

In recent years, the annual intake of female students at the University of Malta has grown steadily to numbers equal to and, for the past two years, slightly higher than that of males (Fig.1). Various factors could have contributed to this increase among which are the opening of new courses attracting a large number of females (eg. Health Care, Psychology, Arts and Communication) and the introduction of a stipend. Although the University population is now over 50% female, this figure is not reflected in the intake of science-based courses. The 1999 student intake consisted of 55% females while only 20% of that ,t emale intake joined science-based courses. It should be noted that the male intake for science courses was only 32% of the total male intake in 1999, so that there appears to be a general negative trend regarding science in general in Malta.