New Data on Women’s Enrollments and Degree Awards in Higher Education

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education offers preliminary data on women’s enrollment in higher education and degree awards for the 2014-15 academic year.

The data shows that in the 2014-15 academic year, there were 15,558,768 women enrolled at degree-granting institutions in the United States. They made up 56.8 percent of the total enrollments in higher education. There were 2,261,419 women enrolled in graduate programs. They made up 59.7 percent of all graduate students.

The report also shows that 1,851,316 women earned a total of 1,903,506 degree awards in the 2014-15 academic year from four-year institutions. Women were 58.1 percent of all students who were granted degrees at four-year institutions and earned 58 percent of all degrees awarded.

Women were 59.3 percent of all students who earned degrees at two-year institutions and more than two thirds of all students who earned degree awards from for-profit institutions.