At first glance, higher education today might seem like a woman's world.

Government officials have warned that men will face a struggle for good jobs in future as teenage boys shun university.

In 2006, 22,500 more young women than men went on to higher education. Ministers are increasingly concerned at the widening gender gap in higher education. Employers increasingly look to hire staff with degrees.

Consequently, men might find themselves marginalised in the jobs market.

Girls have been outperforming boys at GCSE, A-level and in university for years. But now girls are doing better at work too, earning more than boys in the first eight years of their careers.

In 2005, 80% of girls passed national curriculum tests in English, compared with 67% of boys.

At A level, girls passed 23.9% of exams at grade A, compared with 21.5% of boys.

According to Higher Education Funding Council for England Figures last year showed 47% of 17-30 year-old women had gone into higher education in 2004, compared to 37% of young men.

Hefce chief executive Professor David Eastwood said: “We need to understand better why this is happening and start taking some action sooner rather than later.”

Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said “The government has introduced a number of strategies to address the gap in gender achievement and to raise the performance of all pupil”.

The Raising Boys' Achievement Project which looked at exciting and innovative ways of raising achievement across a range of primary, secondary, and special schools to identify and evaluate strategies which are particularly helping motivating boys.

Schools will be better able to address underachievement in the performance of boys and girls if they know when and where they emerge. A careful analysis of data, mapping the development of male and female pupils, particularly the value-added data, including a breakdown of data by key pupil sub-groups, will enable schools to plan when and

how to intervene. Schools should monitor pupils’ progress regularly by gender.