Females Continue To Outnumber Males At Arkansas Colleges

As has been the case for at least the past five years, for every two males who are enrolled in an Arkansas public college or university, there are three females.

According to a February report prepared by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, women made up 58.9 percent of the 174,589 students enrolled in the state’s two-year and four-year colleges and universities during the fall 2012 semester.

Females were a majority at all but four of the state’s 46 public and private colleges, universities and nursing schools, though males made up a slim majority at the state’s largest institution, the University of Arkansas. The difference was more pronounced at two-year colleges (63.3 percent vs. 36.7 percent) than at four-year schools (56.6 percent vs. 43.4 percent). Two-thirds (67.2 percent) of the students at UAMS, the state’s only medical school, were female.

In the fall 2008 semester, 40.4 percent of students were male.

Nationally, there were a little more than 9 million males and 12 million females enrolled as full-time and part-time college students in 2010, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).  In 2009-10, females earned 57 percent of all bachelor’s degrees, 60 percent of master’s degrees, and a little more than half of doctoral degrees.

The 174,589 figure represented a decrease of 1.3 percent from the year before, but the number was 10.1 percent higher than it had been in the fall 2008 semester. Ninety percent of college students were enrolled at a public institution.

Breaking the numbers down along racial lines, 68.7 percent of college students were listed as “white only,” compared to 17.7 percent listed as “black only.” Another 4.3 percent were listed as “Hispanic any,” while 2.8 percent were non-resident aliens.

Meanwhile, 55.8 percent of students were ages 18-24, while 18.5 percent were 25-34. The ratio of full-time to part-time students was 63.6 percent to 36.4 percent.