Effects of the 2003 Quality Reform on Gender Gaps in Student Learning Outcomes in Norwegian Higher Education

In 2003, the Norwegian higher educational system was reformed. The reform, known as the 2003 Quality Reform, introduced changes in the teaching model and student assessment. The authors wished to study how these changes affected male and female students. Therefore, they addressed student learning outcomes, measured through examination results, with respect to gender. Analysis of 5,772,811 examinations from 1990 to 2009 revealed a switch in average performance, from men performing equally well or better than women to women performing better than men. However, greater male than female variability in performance did not change. The effect of gender persisted when controlling for age, subject, home municipality, and type of institution. Overall, women and older students seem to benefit from the changes introduced by the reform more than men and younger students.     

Gender and the 2003 Quality Reform in higher education in Norway

The Bologna Process in Europe aims to develop a coherent and compatible European higher educational system. In Norway, the Quality Reform in 2003 was the first step on implementing the Bologna Process. Internal quality assurance systems have produced several publications on internal indicators, such as student progress and teaching staff work loads, of the Quality Reform. To our knowledge, possible gender differences of these changes have yet to be evaluated. We therefore analyzed data on grades from the University of Oslo before and after the Quality Reform with regard to gender differences. Data on examinations from 1990 to spring 2007 (495,334 examinations) were analyzed using relative percentage graphs. The results show that female students have benefited more than males from the change of system: for several disciplines, male average grades were better than female average grades before the change, and female average grade were better than male average grades after the change. Male students show greater intrasex variability both before and after the introduction of the Quality Reform.