More Women Than Men Are Enrolling in Bachelor's Programs, But Men Are Still Dominating PhD Programs

New data on tertiary education reveals a complex portrait of gender representation, with female students forming the majority at the bachelor's level, while men significantly outnumber at the PhD programs.

A significant gender gap has emerged in advanced academic achievement in the UAE, according to the latest figures from The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre. The data, covering higher education graduates from 2018-2023, reveals that while women are well-represented in undergraduate studies, their numbers fall sharply in postgraduate programs.

At the bachelor's degree level, women earned 119,736 degrees compared to 135,109 for men, making up 47% of all graduates. This near-parity disappears in master's programs, where women received only 38% of degrees (8,479 out of 22,178).

The most striking disparity is at the doctoral level. Of the 3,687 PhDs awarded, men earned 2,916, vastly outnumbering the 771 female graduates. This means women constituted just 21% of all PhD recipients.

Regionally, Abu Dhabi led with 67,517 higher education graduates, accounting for nearly 45% of all graduates recorded between 2018 and 2023. Dubai followed with 35,173 graduates (23.4%), and Sharjah ranked third with 28,259 (18.8%).

Smaller emirates contributed proportionally fewer graduates: Ajman recorded 11,599 (7.7%), Ras Al Khaimah 4,768 (3.2%), Fujairah 2,571 (1.7%), and Umm Al Quwain 609 (0.4%).

In total, 150,496 graduates were recorded across the emirates between 2018 and 2023, according to the FCSC data, highlighting the UAE’s steady investment in higher education and human capital development.