Science proving attractive for female D&A College students

Dundee and Angus College is bucking the national trend when it comes to women studying science.

A recent study found that just 13% of the science and engineering workforce are women. But almost two-thirds of science students at D&A College 63% are female.

Of these, eight classes have more females than males, and in only one do males outnumber females six to five, and that particular stream is university students who attend college for a year, not college students.

At the start of the spring holidays D&A College had 137 people studying science 87 of them females and the remainder male.

Julia Wright, course leader in science at the college, said D&A College may attract more women students into science because it does not focus on subjects that are traditionally male-dominated.

“We deliver mostly chemistry, biology and some maths no physics or pure maths, which are traditionally seen as male-dominated subjects. While our courses do have maths they may seem less off-putting,” she said.