A gender analysis of the population of students and academic staff at the University of Cyprus Athanasios Gagatsis Department of Education University of Cyprus Barcelona, January 2007

LAYOUT OF THE PRESENTATION 1. General information on the faculties and departments of the University of Cyprus 2. Gender distribution at the University of Cyprus ► Academic Staff ► Students

FACULTIES SOCIAL SCIENCES and EDUCATION PURE and APPLIED SCIENCES ECONOMICS and MANAGEMENT ENGINEERING LETTERS The University of Cyprus consists of six faculties: HUMANITIES

EDUCATION Elementary school teacher Kindergarten school teacher SOCIAL SCIENCES Sociology Political Science PSYCHOLOGYPsychology DEPARTMENT DEGREE SOCIAL SCIENCES and EDUCATION LAWLaw

ENGLISH STUDIES English Language and Literature FRENCH STUDIES AND MODERN LANGUAGES French Studies TURKISH STUDIES AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES Turkish Studies DEPARTMENT DEGREE HUMANITIES

CHEMISTRYChemistry COMPUTER SCIENCEComputer Science MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS Mathematics DEPARTMENT DEGREE PURE and APPLIED SCIENCES PHYSICSPhysics BIOLOGICAL STUDIESBiological Studies

PUBLIC AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Accounting Finance Management Science Marketing/Management ECONOMICS Economics International, European and Economic Studies DEPARTMENT DEGREE ECONOMICS and MANAGEMENT

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING Civil and Environmental Engineering ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING Computer Engineering Electrical Engineering MECHANICAL AND MANU- FACTORING ENGINEERING Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering DEPARTMENT DEGREE ENGINEERING ARCHITECTUREArchitecture

BYZANTINE AND MODERN GREEK STUDIES Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies CLASSICS AND PHILOSOPHY Classics Philosophy HISTORY AND ARCHAELOGY History Archaeology DEPARTMENT DEGREE LETTERS Each department offers a number of postgraduate programmes.

GENDER DISTRIBUTION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS Distribution of the academic staff at a number of the departments by gender Distribution of the academic staff at a number of the departments by gender Department Men (%) Women (%) Mathematics and Statistics Physics Chemistry Education Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies Modern Greek Studies Classics and Philosophy English Studies

Academic staff Academic staff ► In the departments of pure and applied sciences women do not exceed 20%. ► In the departments of education and humanities the difference between the number of men and women is smaller. ► The Department of Education is the only department where the number of women exceeds men.

In total, 4274 (72%) of the students (5954) are women and 1680 (28%) are men. Three hypothetical explanations for the “dominance” of women over men are the following: 1. Cypriot girls prefer to stay in Cyprus for their studies, whereas boys prefer to study abroad. 2. Parents in Cyprus encourage their girls to study in Cyprus. 3. Given that in some faculties of the University of Cyprus, the admission levels are higher compared to the corresponding faculties of other universities, girls probably exhibit higher scores at the exams for entrance (Baccalaureate) at the University of Cyprus than boys. Further study is needed to explore the causes of this situation. Distribution of the students at the University of Cyprus

Undergraduate Students In the undergraduate courses, there are 4032 students, 1126 (27.92%) men and 2906 (72.07%) women. Faculty Men (%) Women (%) Humanities Pure and Applied Sciences Social Sciences and Education Economics and Management Engineering Letters

Postgraduate Students In the MSc programmes, there are 851 students, 296 (34.78%) men and 555 (65.22%) women. In the PhD programmes, there are 358 students, 189 (52.80%) men and 169 (47%) women. FacultyPhDMSc Men (%) Women (%) Men (%) Women (%) Humanities Pure and Applied Sciences Social Sciences and Education Economics and Management Engineering Letters Total

Final remarks ► The proportion of women among the students at the University of Cyprus varies across the three levels of studies. The higher the level of studies is, the smaller is the proportion of women. ► Despite the fact that in the undergraduate programmes of the Faculties of Pure Sciences and Economics and Management the number of men is smaller than the number of women, in the MSc and PhD programmes the number of men exceeds the number of women. ► The only Faculty at which the number of men exceeds the number of women at all the three levels is the Faculty of Engineering.

Research implication ► Socio-cultural factors may influence Cypriot women’s choices for higher studies and their tendency not to go on with their studies in a postgraduate level. ► This is an assertion that could be practically useful if it was further examined by a large-scale study among the students of the University of Cyprus.