Gender imbalances in university admission in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Liberalization policy has been associated with rising female labour force participation in Sri Lanka. Despite the suggestive government of Sri Lanka from independence has been giving higher priority for education, there could be seen gender imbalances in university entrance. This study is an attempt to analyze the gender development in university education and to find the gap in gender in the university admission in different fields in Sri Lanka. This is an analysis with the use of secondary data sources collected from Department of Census and Statistics, Central Hank of Sri Lanka and University Grant Commission. Finding shows that the qualified students' numbers for university education has been increasing year by year. As the eligible number of female students for University education is larger than male students, university enrolment of female has significantly increased from academic year 1942 to date in Sri Lanka. The finding further shows that the percentage share offemale entrance to the total number of qualified female students is higher than male students only for arts course. However, the percentage share offemale admission to the total number of eligible female students is lower than the male admission for commerce and science fields. Thus, female students' entrance is higher for arts course and lesser for commerce and science courses when compared to male students.