Recent years have seen a key global change in higher education. Girls are enrolling and graduating at higher rates, and guys are not keeping up. This is apparently a worldwide phenomenon, not only an American one. Career-Journal.com, self-billed as “the most important career news worldwide,” advises that “Women Outnumber Men University Enrolments Worldwide: Women No Longer the Second Sex” (2009-11-08).[1] We learn that, according to UNESCO’s 2009 Global Education Digest, female students increased six-fold between 1970 and 2007, while males only quadrupled:[2]

UNESCO’s survey found that in North America and Europe, a third more women than men are on campus. Latin America, the Caribbean as well as Central Asia also show high rates of female enrolments. In a number of countries, at least two females graduate for every male.

Of course, we must exercise caution when comparing our culture with others. While, the general trend toward fewer male frosh, hence fewer graduates, is clear in much of the world, different local factors may drive it—particularly in countries where only a small proportion of the population, male or female, attends a university anyway.

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At SuperScholar, we encourage the love of learning and seeing education as more than a commodity. But if education is for you only a commodity — in other words, if it’s only a springboard to a high paying job that will allow you to live a life of comfort compared to your friends who only finished high school — you might want to think again.

Eric Fry, an investment counselor, has a fascinating article on this very issue at THE DAILY RECKONING (go here for the article). In it he compares two students, Ernie and Bill. Ernie takes the money that was saved for his college education and, instead of going to college, invests it in a mutual fund that tracks the stock market. Bill takes the same amount of money and puts it toward his college education.

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