Efforts to encourage women into computing appear to be paying off, with the gap between men and women choosing computing degrees the smallest it's ever been.
Analysis of data from university clearing service UCAS by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, has found that a record 6,310 UK women started a computing degree at UK universities in 2024, compared with 26,400 men.
And while this means that there are still 4.1 young men for every female counterpart studying computing degrees, that's a slight drop from a ratio of 4.2 to one in 2023.
Notably, BCS said this marks a big improvement over previous years, with 5.5 18-year-old men to each young woman recorded in 2019.
"A computing degree gives young people influence over the way the world will develop and the direction society will take. They’ve grown up seeing how technology shapes the future of industry, politics, communications, social life and work and they want a way in," said Julia Adamson, MD for education and public benefit at BCS.
"I’m excited that young women are using computing to seize their future in greater numbers. But we need this to accelerate rapidly because it is vital the UK has diverse teams working in areas like AI to make sure its decisions and outcomes are good for everyone."
Overall, the number of students taking a computing degree rose by 7% in 2024, more than twice as much as the overall rise of 3% for all subjects.
However, there are regional differences. While numbers are growing in England and Scotland by 6% and 8% respectively, there are declines in Northern Ireland and Wales, by 8% and 3%.
BCS said computing degrees appear to be contributing strongly to social mobility, with students from the two least advantaged groups of the UK accounting for half of all acceptances - well above the 42% rate for all degrees.
Students starting UK computing degrees are also ethnically diverse, with Asian (24%), black (14%) and mixed-race (6%) students accounting for nearly half of the intake, compared with just a third for UK undergraduate higher education as a whole.
But while female representation may be rising at university level, there may well be a decline in a couple of years.
This summer, King's College researchers found that, after the curriculum became narrower in scope, the number of girls in England taking GCSE-level computing has more than halved since 2015.
Separate BCS research has found that 94% of girls and 79% of boys drop computing at age 14.
