Study names the UK universities leading the way in gender diversity in the Computer Sciences

A new study by cybersecurity technology company, CrowdStrike, reveals which UK universities are leading the way in boosting gender diversity in the Computer Sciences.

The underrepresentation of female academic staff in the Computer Sciences is fuelling a vicious cycle in which young women are dissuaded from pursuing a career in the growing field and miss out on highly paid and in-demand positions.

Research shows that compared to other STEM subjects, Computer Science is lagging behind in gender equality – just 13 percent of Computer Science undergraduates in the UK are women. But with female role models, girls are 52 percent more likely to stay in STEM fields.

So, to find out which universities are leading by example, CrowdStrike has analysed the top 25 Computer Sciences departments in the UK to reveal which have the highest female representation among their teaching and research staff.

Aberystwyth University, in North Wales, comes in first place in the study with the most gender equal Computer Sciences department. A third (33.3 percent) of teaching and research staff are women. For student performance overall, Aberystwyth’s Computer Science department ranks 22nd in the UK out of 110 schools:

Interestingly, the university has more female staff members than male across all departments, with their most recent annual equality report declaring a split of 51.9 percent female.

Two further universities studied also have over 30 percent female representation among academic staff: University of St Andrews in Scotland (33.1 percent), the UK’s third most highly rated Computer Science department, and King’s College London (31.9 percent) – ranked 14th.

The Scottish government’s commitment to improving representation of women in STEM subjects is an important initiative helping to close the gender skills gap. In fact, the study highlights 40 percent of the 10 most gender diverse Computer Science departments are in Scotland.

The remaining five universities in the top 10 are in England, with King’s College London ranked highest in 3rd place overall. Another London university also made the top 10 list – University College London (UCL), ranked in 7th place with 25.6 percent female staff in its Computer Science school.

UCL’s innovative education resource, aimed at encouraging more girls to take up STEM subjects for A-levels is a testament to their mission to close the gender diversity gap in disciplines including the Computer Sciences.

If we compare the findings from the UK and U.S. the UK has slightly better gender representation than the U.S. but the difference is marginal – 20.1 percent of academic staff in the top 25 UK Computer Science schools are female, compared to 18.7 percent in the U.S.