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Student Survey Reflects Gender Differences Among Indian Applicants
By Laura Bridgestock
Updated March 6, 2016 Updated March 6, 2016As part of our series of blog posts looking in greater detail at the data collected for the International Trends in Student Mobility report, this week we’re focusing on prospective international students in India. We had a good number of respondents from India; of more than 4,000 prospective postgraduate students who participated in the survey, over 530 were in India – almost 13% of the total group.*
Overall, Indian respondents reflected many of the trends seen at international level – in terms of their preferred study destinations, priorities when choosing a location, most popular subjects of study and 10-year career aspirations. Their future expectations about working hours were longer than the average, even when compared to other Asian countries; just under 49% of Indian respondents said they expected to work more than 50 hours per week, compared to 43% of Asian respondents overall.
Indian women less likely to choose STEM subjects
While overall our survey group was split fairly equally between men and women, the Indian group was much less even, with men representing more than 64% of responses. This may in part reflect the fact that India is one of few countries where men outnumber women, as well as the fact that our survey was targeted at students considering studying outside of their own country. While there’s recently been celebration (or, from some quarters, consternation) over the news that women are now a majority at a number of leading Indian universities, perhaps Indian women remain less likely to study abroad than their male counterparts.
There have also been signs that subject-based gender gaps are gradually narrowing, with Indian women becoming more equally represented in at least some traditionally male-dominated disciplines – though remaining a notable minority in fields such as physics, engineering and business. Curious to see whether our own survey group reflected these trends, we found that Indian women were more likely than men to be applying for courses in the FAME group (finance, accounting, management and economics). But they were much less likely to be applying in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Within the Indian group, this STEM subject gender gap was significantly greater than that seen in our overall global sample.
Gender differences in study abroad priorities
Like students in almost all the world regions our survey covered, Indian respondents identified “international recognition of qualifications” as the most important factor when choosing a study destination – and this was consistent across both genders. However, for Indian women the next priority was “cultural interest and lifestyle”, while men were more likely to be focused on the availability of scholarships and financial aid. Men were also more likely to be motivated by opportunities to stay on and work in their chosen study destination, though a notable percentage of Indian women did identify this as a key factor in their decision.
These priorities are of additional interest in light of the fact that Indian women who responded to our survey were more likely to name the UK as their preferred destination, while for men the US was the top choice.
*The data referred to here was collected as part of an international survey of students applying for graduate-level studies, in partnership with the QS World Grad School Tour. The majority of respondents were attendees of a QS event and/or applicants for a QS scholarship. In 2012-13, more than 4,000 responses were collected, including 533 from prospective graduate students in India. For more on the survey demographics and methodology, download the full report.
This article was originally published in June 2014 . It was last updated in March 2016
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The former editor of TopUniversities.com, Laura oversaw the site's editorial content and student forums. She also edited the QS Top Grad School Guide and contributed to market research reports, including 'How Do Students Use Rankings?'
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