{"id":117646,"date":"2016-10-05T15:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T19:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=117646"},"modified":"2016-10-21T15:12:36","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T19:12:36","slug":"uconn-leader-closing-engineering-gender-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/10\/uconn-leader-closing-engineering-gender-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn a Leader in Closing the Engineering Gender Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent efforts by UConn’s School of Engineering to attract and retain more female students are paying off: The University is closing the gender gap in its engineering program faster than many of its peers.<\/p>\n

\"Top<\/a>The surge in women as a percentage of UConn’s engineering graduates over the past five years represents the largest percentage increase in the country among 90 public institutions surveyed<\/a> recently by The Washington Post.<\/em><\/p>\n

The school\u2019s commitment to diversity resulted in a 9.3 percent increase in female engineering graduates between 2010 and 2015, which was highest among public institutions and state flagships. Nearly a quarter (24.3 percent) of the school\u2019s graduates in 2015 were women, leading to UConn being ranked eighth nationally in terms of the percentage of female students earning engineering bachelor\u2019s degrees last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows that sustained outreach to traditionally underrepresented groups in engineering can yield real dividends,\u201d says Daniel Burkey, the school\u2019s associate dean for undergraduate education and diversity. \u201cIt also shows that a strong support network and numerous resources for those students once they are in a college setting, in addition to their own natural talents, contribute to their persistence and eventual graduation with an engineering degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the outreach and support programs driving the effort to recruit more female engineering students are run by student leaders within the school. That kind of peer-to-peer contact, role modeling, and leadership has created a strong, vibrant student community within the UConn School of Engineering that is quickly recognized by potential students who visit and take part in different programs.<\/p>\n