Female participation at NIU exceeds state-wide enrollment at public universities.

Female enrollment at NIU has risen from 49.4 percent in 1980 to 51.3 percent in 1990, an Illinois Board of Higher Education report stated.

A report compiled by Roxanne Gunser, statistician for the Office of Institutional Research, stated although NIU enrollment in undergraduate programs has fallen in the same period, female undergraduates at NIU surpasses state-wide enrollment with 54 percent in 1990.

Significant increases at NIU were at the graduate and professional levels, but graduate enrollment at NIU is far below the state percentage.

The IBHE report stated the percentage of females enrolled in the graduate programs is 97.4 percent and the NIU report noted 59.77 percent were enrolled in the graduate program in 1990.

At NIU, female participation is the largest in the elementary education program, with 29 degrees conferred in the 1990-1991 academic year. Other programs with large percentages of female enrollment include communication studies, nursing, marketing, and accountancy.

“State-wide trends have shown notable increases in agriculture and natural resources, mathematics, and philosophy/religion/theology,” the IBHE report said.

Traditionally, females have been under-represented at public universities and private institutions, but over the past decade and in the past year,increases in enrollment and degrees awarded have grown in all sectors of Illinois higher education.

Community colleges, which have the highest percentage of females, had the lowest increase in enrollment in 1990.