Male students in the leading universities are outperforming females in top degrees, despite girls doing better in school, figures to be published shortly show.
Female students make up the majority of university students, but get only 42 per cent of the first-class honours degrees, compared to 58 per cent for males.
For overall honours degrees, 68 per cent of males gain an honour, compared to 67 per cent of females. Male students get more first-class degrees in all universities, except NUI Maynooth. The strong performance of male students in engineering and computer-related courses is a factor.
At second level girls outperform boys in the Junior and Leaving Certificate - this year in most subjects including maths, business and science.
The most stark findings relate to the first-class honours degree (70 per cent of the marks or more). The figures for 1997/1998 show that from 5,588 male students, 521 got first-class honours, compared to 411 females from a population of 6,737.
In UCD 110 men got first-class honours compared to 75 women; in NUI Galway, 79 men compared to 53 women and in Trinity College 122 men got first-class honours compared to 97 women.
The figures submitted by the colleges are included in the HEA's forthcoming annual report for 1997/98.
Last night the Union of Students in Ireland said the results were perplexing in light of girls outperforming boys in school exams. It called on the HEA and the universities to investigate the trends.
In terms of different courses the results are more mixed. For example, more females got first-class honours in science at UCD, NUI Galway and NUI Maynooth, even though traditionally girls are less likely to take science at school.