A Sydney university has significantly boosted the share of women in engineering and other male-dominated courses three years after instituting a controversial program to lower entry scores for female school-leavers, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Almost 500 engineering, IT and construction students at the University of Technology Sydney have been granted 10 extra ATAR points since 2020, when the institution lowered the bar for females under a plan to boost the number of women in the field.
Figures obtained by the Herald show that across all 20 courses that offer the extra ATAR points to women, there was a 109 per cent increase in female enrolments between 2019 and 2022. The number of male students in the courses increased 28 per cent in the same period.
In 2022, 28 per cent of students in the relevant courses were female, up nine percentage points on the 19 per cent recorded in 2019. Almost one of five enrolled female students had been granted the extra points.
In some courses – including the bachelor of science in games development – almost half of all female students were given adjustment points last year. It resulted in the proportion of female students in that degree rising from 11 per cent in 2017 to 29 per cent in 2022.
Bachelor of engineering (honours) diploma in professional engineering practice had the highest number of women granted adjustment points last year at 51 students, or 17 per cent of all women enrolled.
UTS fifth- and sixth-year engineering students Amelia Giugni and Jannat Gohar said they supported the ATAR adjustment scheme, but it had reinforced already deeply embedded prejudices that women faced in the classroom and workplace.
“It is a great initiative and I’m very for it, but it’s encouraging a lot of those biases where females are iced out in classrooms because, oh, ‘you only got in because you’re a girl’,” Gohar said. “We have to prove ourselves on a different level before we’re even considered a proper engineer.
“I’ve had people say, ‘oh wow you’re actually smart’ after completing a task despite working with them for six months.”
FULL STORY
University boosts female enrolments in male-dominated subjects after lowering ATAR bar (Sydney Morning Herald)
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UTS engineering students Amelia Giugni and Jannat Gohar.CREDIT:NICK MOIR
