In some institutions male students are underrepresented in their engagement with counselling services.
The University of Essex undertook a study looking at patterns of participation in one-off enquiries and found that, regardless of mode and level of study, male students were consistently less likely to contact student services. Essex plan to explore further whether men tend to seek support from other parts of the institutional welfare infrastructure, for example the students’ union.
The University of Brighton undertook a study looking for any equality patterns of in-person use of their careers service. It found that while service use was broadly consistent with the student profile, white, young males used the service less. In the future the university will be exploring whether these users access other careers-service led activities (such as workshops or employer events) to find out if any targeted activities are needed. The careers service has developed a post which will look at overall engagement of students in careers activities, and this post will work with the equalities officer to consider engagement across the whole range of careers activities.
