How Should We Think About the Decrease in Men Going to College?

From Pew Research to The New York Times and The Atlantic, everyone seems to be talking about the fact that men are just not going to college the way they used to. The gender gap is the widest it has ever been in higher education — for approximately every six women enrolled in an American college or university, only four men can say the same. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and higher education institutions found themselves with 1.5 million fewer students enrolled than five years prior, 71% of that decline could be attributed to men.

While these numbers may — appropriately — have us raising our eyebrows, Vice President for Enrollment Management at Campbell University David Mee cautions against letting the headlines lead us to believe that this is a brand new phenomenon.

“I've been in admission work for 35 years, and quite honestly, this question has been asked in different forms at different times over years and decades,” Mee says. As he considers the rise in women pursuing and persisting in higher education over the past 75 years or so, Mee is the first to admit that he has “more curiosities than answers.”

For Mee, the question is not one of how to solve the problem of declining male enrollment. Rather, the question is one of helping boys and young men — as well as girls and young women — to find the best fit for them, whether that’s on his college campus, at another higher education institution, or on a different path altogether. For higher education institutions, encouraging community partners and alumni to start the college conversation early in life may help young men identify their ideal path. From there, personalizing recruitment approaches and highlighting facts that are relevant to future success can go a long way as well.

Start the Conversation Early

Mee wonders about the effect of college counseling in high schools, dinner table conversations throughout the growing up years, and the impact of online marketing on the relational dynamics between college enrollment officers and prospective students. Similarly, Kristin Wright, Associate Director of Admissions at East Tennessee State University echoes his sentiments, noting that “instilling the value of post-secondary education begins early — middle school or even earlier.”

Wright and Mee certainly aren’t alone in pondering various trends in enrollment and what might be leading to them. Theories abound when it comes to why men are not pursuing, or completing, college education.

What’s keeping men from enrolling (and staying in) college?

Noting that this imbalance isn’t merely occurring in the United States, Derek Thompson notes that experts cite several different reasons that could be working together to cause this phenomenon. There’s the economic fact that men were long able to earn a decent living without a college education by working in factories or mines.

Sociologically, male relationships to institutions like churches and the nuclear family have shifted, Thompson observes, and male representation in public school teaching positions is quite small, which may discourage male students from identifying examples to replicate. He also points out that the disparity isn’t just an American phenomenon, which could point to biological reasons for it. Girls’ brains develop more quickly than boys, and boys may be more prone to certain types of risk-taking due to their testosterone levels—not to mention the fact that history has often called upon men to abandon their education in order to work or go to war.

Whether just one, some combination, or all of these factors are contributing to the widening gap, one thing is clear: men are in danger of increasingly devaluing higher education and missing out on the long-term benefits it can bring to their lives. And the issue isn’t just male enrollment, either. Male persistence in higher education is a major issue — men are 20% more likely to drop out of college than women. Considering the fact that 40% of students in general drop out of college every year, that 20% increase is quite a significant factor.

Don’t Generalize, Personalize

While much of the work needs to be done prior to college decision or attending time, there are still many things that higher education institutions can do to encourage higher male enrollment and persistence. Mee cautions against making the assumption that one marketing or recruiting approach will appeal to all male prospective students, though. Like any other segment of the population, boys and men may share many common characteristics but they are not uniformly motivated or inspired. They also face differing career opportunities based on where they live — a degree with a promising professional outlook in Seattle, Washington may not yield the same job prospects in Jackson, Mississippi.

Rather than adopting a paradigm in which college admissions officers set out to convince young men to pursue higher education at their institution, Mee takes a different perspective. He hopes that adults in students’ lives — whether parents, K-12 teachers and counselors, or college admissions professionals — will provide information, perspective, and wisdom that students need in order to make the best decision for themselves. While that may lead to some prospective students choosing a different institution, or lead them away from higher education altogether, Mee believes that such an approach likely has a positive effect on student persistence. If students find their true fit at a college or university, they could very well be much more likely to persist and graduate.

Shining a light on career paths

When it comes to relevant information for prospective students to have as they make post-high-school decisions, Wright recommends developing and marketing degree programs that directly correlate to careers and marketplace opportunities.

“We suspect that we are losing a lot of males to the workforce and/or Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs,” Wright says. “Those programs are certainly good, but we want male students to know there are very hands-on options with four year degrees too. Bringing faculty from our hands-on programs (engineering, surveying and mapping, engineering tech, interior architecture, digital media, etc.) into the high schools, particularly to CTE classes, to help students understand their options.”

Helping young men see the way that a college education can lead them to a career path they will find meaningful is part of Rey Kennelly’s approach as well. As the Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Lewis University, Kennelly and his colleagues work to “create an inclusive environment for men so that they feel comfortable pursuing their interests.”

Take the Lewis University nursing program, for example. Cultural stigmas and historical trends often keep men from considering nursing as a career path, but the program and marketing approach at Lewis University proves that it doesn’t have to be that way. Named one of the Best Schools for Men in Nursing by the American Association for Men in Nursing for the third year in a row, Lewis University’s College of Nursing encourages young men to consider a career in nursing in several concrete ways.

First, the college of nursing features a mentorship program that connects male nursing students with male alumni. The college also prioritizes male representation in their hiring of nursing faculty. And, by way of one more example, Men Entering Nursing (MEN), a Lewis University student group, hosts outreach events high schools that give students in the college decision-making process the opportunity to meet men a few years ahead of them who are pursuing a viable, meaningful career path that the students may not have previously considered.

Feature the Facts

Those trying to decide whether or not higher education is a good option for them should also be made aware of the economic value of a college education. On average, the men with bachelor’s degrees can expect to earn around $900,000 more in median earnings over the course of their lifetimes than high school graduates. The numbers are even higher when it comes to graduate level education — men with master’s degrees typically earn a median of $1.5 million more during their careers than their high school graduate peers.

Attending a college or university also increases men’s chances of building a professional network. Research shows that up to 80% of job placements can be attributed to networking. Combine that with the fact that nine out of 10 new jobs are filled by college graduates and you’re looking at a professional landscape that offers far more opportunities to the degree-holder.

Have Hope for the Future

It’s important to keep in mind that information about degree programs, hands-on opportunities, and financial benefits is simply that — information. For young people, typically teenagers, who are making college decisions, the goal of sharing data points should not simply be to shore up a sizable freshman class or to slow the growing gender imbalance. The heart of higher education isn’t numbers or percentages — it’s people. And when college enrollment officers, admissions advisors, and marketers consider their approach in view of that heartbeat, it’s likely that clarity around how to empower and encourage the populations who need it will arise.

“it's not about convincing,” says Mee. “I think convincing is, perhaps, one of the worst strategies out there because it's assuming you can sort of do a magic trick and all of a sudden students will feel like they're a good fit for you.”

Especially over the course of the past few years, it’s more than understandable that higher education enrollment and marketing professionals would set out to segment, recruit, and enroll young men. The increased disparity in gender representation has occurred alongside and within months of a global pandemic, societal unrest, and political tumult. In times of distress, when the world seems confusing, it’s human nature to look for a problem that can be solved.

On the surface, low numbers of male college enrollment may appear to be such a problem. But taking a different view — one that values each person as an individual with a bright future ahead of them — can free higher education professionals from endless strategizing, persuading, and checking the numbers. Instead, they can design marketing campaigns, engage in conversations, and create opportunities that offer prospective students a story to see themselves within. And, perhaps, in doing so, more boys and young men will grow their imaginations for how higher education can help them achieve the life they hope to live, both now and in the future.