A growing number of teenage boys say they don’t think they will attend university, according to education think tank Sutton Trust. In a recent survey, the organization found 76 percent of girls said they were likely to pursue post-secondary education, versus 67 percent of boys. The gap of 9 percent was twice as high as the year previous, and some education experts recognize it as part of a negative trend.

“We are looking for new ways to raise the attainment and aspirations of boys,” Peter Lampl, Sutton Trust chairman, said, “particularly those from non-privileged backgrounds, so that more of them decide to go on to higher education.”

The study found boys to have a more negative perspective regarding how a university education would help them in the future. While girls were more likely to cite “aiming to do the best you can” and “being able to read and write well” as major factors influencing their futures, boys were more likely to say “knowing the right people,” “family background,” and “which secondary school you go to.”

One in three boys said the reason he did not want to attend university was because he “[does] not enjoy learning.” One in five girls felt the same.

The findings were published by the Guardian and the Telegraph.

This study challenges the assumption that girls are disadvantaged by an educational environment that supposedly favors males. With a significant majority of teachers being female and the Western educational environment in general recognized as largely liberal, the male role has been obfuscated and even attacked. These trends are compounded by a dearth of masculine leadership in education as well as society. It is possible that boys are choosing other careers not because they lack motivation—the inherent assumption in the study is that pursuit of post-secondary education directly correlates with ambition in life—but because of a certain level of alienation within the feminized academic environment and the life it prepares one for.

Whether or not this is the case, liberal education and the liberal leaders it produces are forcing out the masculine role, just as the Bible prophesies in passages such as Isaiah 3. This problem has much further-reaching effects than the Sutton survey indicates. For more on this subject, read “Lost Boys” and “The Case for Male Teachers.”