Gendered Journeys: the trajectories of STEM students and graduates through higher education and into employment, in multiple global south contexts

该项目将调查性别在多大程度上以及以何种方式影响印度和卢旺达学生在STEM部门接受高等教育、毕业和进入熟练就业的进展。这一点很重要，因为科学在支持全球可持续发展方面发挥着关键作用，除非科学更好地利用妇女和女孩的潜在技能，否则就无法实现可持续发展。目前，在地球仪的大多数国家，无论是作为学生还是作为劳动力，女孩和妇女在STEM领域的代表性都明显不足。在高等教育层面，只有35%的国际STEM研究学生是女性（教科文组织，2017年a）。解决这一问题对于确保公平获得优质教育和有意义的工作至关重要，对于寻求优先考虑公平经济发展的国家至关重要，直接涉及联合国可持续发展目标4，5和6。我们关注的两个国家，印度和卢旺达，目前高等教育中女性STEM学生的代表性严重不足，与熟练劳动力有关（世界经济论坛，2018），这些国家的研究数量有限，就像许多全球南方背景一样，关于性别和STEM问题中学后（概述见例如联合国教科文组织，2017 a）。特别缺乏研究的是学生进入大学后的性别旅程，以及进入技术就业（教科文组织，2017年a，EGHE，2018年）。此外，大多数低收入和中等收入国家没有收集详细的分类数据，以记录高等教育一级的入学、保留、转学/辍学和成功毕业情况，特别是按机构和学科分类的情况（见Chanana，2007年）。也没有关于学生离开学校后的旅程的信息。因此，我们的研究试图解决这些差距。该项目已被组织成5个不同的工作包（WP）。WP 1涉及对高等教育参与和成就的性别模式进行二级统计数据分析，利用印度和卢旺达的现有数据，并将联合王国的数据用于比较目的。WP 2涉及两国STEM学生的大规模初步调查数据。WP 3包括一系列深入的定性方法，包括对印度和卢旺达的三组参与者的深入访谈：每个国家大学的一年级STEM学生和最后一年STEM学生以及每个国家主要STEM雇主的员工。所有参与者将在一年后再次接受采访，以探索他们随着时间的推移的经验，并为第二组，过渡到就业的潜在经验。该团队希望了解英国STEM领域性别代表性不足的类似问题，并更公平地促进国家之间的知识交流，因此WP 4涉及对英国数据服务档案中许多不同的相关定性/混合方法数据集的二次数据分析。学术产出将包括至少10篇期刊文章，提交给适当领域的高影响力期刊。非学术产出将包括与学生参与者共同开发对性别问题有敏感认识的虚拟支助“工具包”;与科学、技术、工程和数学领域的学术和行业工作人员共同开发对性别问题有敏感认识的持续专业发展材料，这些材料适合适当的国家/区域情况。

This project will investigate how far, and in what ways, gender may have an influence in the progress of students through higher education, graduation and progression into skilled employment in the STEM sector in India and Rwanda. This is important because science has a critical role in supporting global sustainable development that will not be realised unless it makes better use of the potential skills of women and girls. At present, girls and women are markedly under-represented in STEM areas both as students and in the workforce in most countries across the globe. At Higher Education level, only 35% of students enrolled in STEM studies internationally are women (UNESCO, 2017a). Addressing this problem is vital in ensuring equitable access to quality education and meaningful work, and is crucial for countries seeking to prioritise equitable economic development, speaking directly to UN SDGs 4, 5, and 6. Both our countries of focus, India and Rwanda, currently have a severe under-representation of women STEM students in HE, and in relation to the skilled workforce (WEF, 2018), and there is a limited amount of research in these countries, as in many global south contexts, on gender and STEM issues post-secondary school (for an overview see e.g. UNESCO, 2017a). What is particularly under-researched is the gendered journeys of students once they have accessed university, and beyond into skilled employment (UNESCO, 2017a, EGHE, 2018). Moreover, most lower and middle-income countries do not collect detailed disaggregated data to document access, retention, transfer/dropout, and successful graduation at HE level, especially by institution and discipline (see Chanana, 2007). Neither is there information on the onward journeys of students after they leave education Our research thus seeks to address these gaps.The project has been organised into 5 distinct work packages (WPs). WP1 involves secondary statistical data analysis of gendered patterns of HE participation and achievement, utilising available data in India and Rwanda, with UK data utilised for comparative purposes. WP2 involves largescale primary survey data with STEM students in both countries. WP3 comprises a range of in-depth qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with three sets of participants in India and Rwanda: first-year STEM students and final year STEM students at a university in each country and employees in a key STEM employer in each country. All participants will be interviewed again a year later, to explore their experience over time, and for the second group, potential experiences of transition into employment. The team wished to acknowledge similar issues of under-representation according to gender in STEM in the UK, and also to contribute more equitably to the knowledge exchange between countries, hence WP4 involves secondary data analysis of a number of different, relevant qualitative/mixed method datasets in UK Data Service archives.Responsibility for impact activities will be shared equally between partner HEIs. Academic outputs will include at least 10 journal articles to be submitted to high impact journals in appropriate fields. Non-academic outputs will include the development of gender-sensitive virtual support 'toolkits' , developed in conjunction with student participants; and gender-sensitive CPD materials developed in conjunction with STEM academic and industry staff, tailored to appropriate national/regional contexts.