Boys less keen on being students

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Less than half as many boys as girls have applied for summer schools that give them a flavour of university life.

A scheme run by the Sutton Trust educational charity aims to encourage students from poorer backgrounds.

But this year 1,467 girls applied and only 670 boys. Founder Sir Peter Lampl said: "Maybe they are too shy."

Figures due out next week from the UK university admissions service are likely to show 44% of those applying for degree courses this year are boys.

A decade ago it was 46%.

Non-professionals

The Sutton Trust pays for about 660 students from across the country to spend a week in July at a choice of Bristol, Cambridge, Nottingham, Oxford or St Andrews universities.

They go to lectures, meet tutors and take part in social activities with current undergraduates as mentors.

Those who are most likely to be given places are 16 and 17-year-olds from non-privileged backgrounds whose parents are in non-professional occupations and did not go to university themselves.

Applicants from schools which do not normally send many students on to higher education are also given preference.

Boys represented less than a third (31%) of all those who applied this year.

This was an improvement on last year's 29% but nothing like as much as the charity had hoped.

Some people have suggested that the gender gap may simply reflect the availability of relatively well paid jobs for young men.