For years, U.S. colleges and universities have grappled with a persistent truth: their campuses are growing steadily more female. As of 2022, men represented just 42 percent of students ages 18 to 24 at four-year institutions; in 2011 that figure was 47 percent. This decline, driven by a variety of cultural factors, has caused hand-wringing in higher education admissions offices. For at least some marcomm teams, it has spurred a call to action — targeting young men.
At the University of Montana (UM), this notable imbalance sparked a strategic effort to attract more men to attend the school through traditional means, including adding more pictures of male students to brochures, spotlighting outdoor sports and promoting academic programs like forestry and wildlife biology that might appeal to male interests. A campaign featuring lumberjack competitions and a “Wild Sustenance” course about hunting and wilderness conservation followed, inspired by candid conversations with male students who prized Montana’s mountains and rivers.
The results for UM were modest — a 2.88 percent uptick in male enrollment, but nothing transformative. So this spring, marketing leaders at the Missoula institution began to rethink their approach, says Dr. Kelly Nolin, director of admission, who added that one mother’s comment suggesting her daughter chose UM after admiring the presence of “rugged men” in the conservative state highlighted a wider interest in traditional masculinity the university is now mindful of as it works to present a campus where differing cultural viewpoints can thrive.
While the university’s student body remains approximately 57 percent female to 43 percent male, staff recognize that narrowing this gender gap requires more than surface-level fixes. Nolin is now a member of the Higher Education Male Achievement Collaborative (HEMAC) — a national partnership aimed at increasing male enrollment and completion rates convened by the American Institute for Boys and Men and University of Tennessee — and she has learned from experts like co-founder Richard Reeves about deeper, systemic strategies for change.
Establishing a football program does increase male enrollment initially, but not in a way that shifts long-term trends. — Welch Suggs, UGA
Nolin’s takeaways from HEMAC included the importance of creating a genuine sense of belonging, promoting pathways to financial independence and tapping into young men’s entrepreneurial and independent spirit. UM’s evolving message now balances career readiness, meaningful living, wellbeing and leadership, and intends to engage students across diverse political and cultural backgrounds while fostering respectful dialogue.
This is the new playbook for higher ed, one that acknowledges the complexity of today’s students and seeks to redefine what it means to attract and retain men on campus — not with stereotypes, but with purpose.
Missing Men
The challenges facing the University of Montana are part of a larger national trend. The gender imbalance in higher education isn’t new, but its scale has become more pronounced in recent years. Since the passage of Title IX in 1972 — designed to expand educational opportunities for women — the number of women enrolling in colleges and earning degrees has steadily outpaced that of men. Today, women earn nearly 60 percent of all bachelor’s degrees, a wider gap than at any point in modern history.
This shift has sparked both celebration and concern. For some, it signals long-overdue progress in correcting past inequities. For others, it raises difficult questions: Why are fewer men enrolling in universities? Why are more of them struggling to graduate?
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Experts point to a mix of economic, social and cultural factors. As stable, well-paying jobs for men without college degrees have declined in many regions — especially in manufacturing industries — the financial payoff of college has become less clear for some young men. At the same time, shifting gender norms have complicated ideas of masculinity, leaving some unsure of where they belong.
These tensions were on full display at a 2024 Montclair State University symposium, “Triumph Over Trauma,” where scholars and practitioners explored how rigid expectations around masculinity can hinder emotional growth, academic engagement and overall well-being. “Hyper masculinity serves as a cancer in our community,” says Dr. Daniel Jean, Associate Provost for Educational Opportunity and Success Programs at Montclair State University, who argues that it distorts views “on what manhood is and what it is not,” and creates concerns around anti-intellectualism and “violence run rampant.”
Plaid and Playbooks Aren’t Enough
In recent years, some colleges like Calvin University in Michigan, Fontbonne University in St. Louis and University of California, Irvine, have tried to reverse the trend by launching football teams and esports programs — moves that, on the surface, appear tailored to young men’s interests. But research suggests these efforts rarely make a lasting impact on gender ratios.
“Operationally, there are real institutional impacts if the student body skews toward one gender or the other.” — Jay Jacobs, UVM
Dr. Welch Suggs, a professor at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute, led a study titled Institutional Effects of Adding Football: A Difference-in-Difference Analysis. He found that establishing a football program did increase male enrollment initially, but not in a way that shifted long-term trends, relative to other institutions that never prioritized the sport. While new teams bring in male athletes at first, schools like Berry College in Georgia and Hendrix College in Arkansas then start attracting students who value football — and that group includes both men and women, so the gender balance stays about the same.
Purpose Over Persona
As the gender gap persists, colleges face a critical dilemma: how to attract and retain more male students without reinforcing clichés or leaning on outdated tropes. At Montana, this means emphasizing programs that promote purpose, practical skills and career readiness — like Paramedicine and Forestry. It also means building up the recruitment funnel by buying lists of students’ names for majors that may appeal more to men, including cybersecurity, wildlife biology, math, and esports.
This approach echoes national trends. Colleges like Montclair State and the University of Vermont are rethinking how they connect with young men — building programming around leadership, entrepreneurship and real-world outcomes.
In fall of 2022, Montclair State University launched Male Enrollment and Graduation Alliance (MEGA), a national initiative meant to improve the college attendance and completion of all males at Montclair. In 2020, male students made up under 37 percent of the undergraduate population, Associate Provost Jean says. Fueled even more by the tragic story of high school senior Robert Daniel Cuadra, who was admitted to Montclair but was killed before his college career could begin, MEGA set out to address the decline in male enrollment.
Large-scale programming at Montclair, which increased its male population back up to 42 percent in 2024-25, now includes creating safe spaces like Barbershop.edu — a campus program promoting male leadership where students can get a haircut free of charge while discussing mental health or relationships. The Boys to Men Future College Graduate Conference, another Montclair initiative, brings hundreds of prospective male students to campus to demystify the college application process and college costs.
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At the University of Vermont, the population has climbed from 31 percent male in Fall 2021 to an estimated 40 percent for Fall 2025, says Vice Provost Jay Jacobs. UVM’s enrollment management team has taken a deliberate approach to better engage prospective male students (and their parents), recognizing both the demographic shift in higher education and the institutional value of a more balanced student body, Jacobs adds.
UVM’s marketing efforts also emphasize themes that particularly resonate with young men, such as entrepreneurship, innovation, global engagement and career readiness. One standout initiative, the Vermont Pitch Challenge, invites high school students to compete in business pitch competitions. Though not explicitly marketed by gender, the challenge has drawn a predominantly male audience — about 65 percent of inquiries are from boys, according to Jacobs — a reflection of the interests uncovered through UVM’s internal research.
“Operationally, there are real institutional impacts if the student body skews toward one gender or the other,” Jacobs says, noting how it can potentially impact the balance of scholarships in compliance with NCAA and Title IX rules. “We’ve made a conscious decision to ensure that our marketing materials resonate with men.” Beyond the numbers, he adds, a diverse community is a more interesting one — and one that better prepares students for life after UVM.
Other institutions are also developing targeted programs to attract and retain young men, especially in fields where they are underrepresented:
- At Western Kentucky University, where only 38 percent of students were male in 2023, its Young Male Leadership Academy encourages high school boys to consider careers in education, with plans to expand into psychology.
- California’s community college system, where men made up 43.6 percent of enrollment in 2023 is home to A2MEND (African American Male Education Network and Development), an initiative with a robust support system for Black male students that offers scholarships, mentorship and spaces for connection.
- At Clemson University, the Call Me MISTER program, an initiative designed to increase the number of male teachers of color in the region, has expanded to several other colleges, including Western Carolina University, where only 41 percent of enrolled students were male as of 2023.
- CUNY’s Black Male Initiative supports underrepresented students — at a university where men represent 47.7 percent of the undergraduate population — through academic, economic, and wellness programming that creates pathways to fields like medicine, law, and justice.
At Berea College in Kentucky, which has seen a sharp decline in male enrollment — down to 41 percent of enrolled students as of 2023 — efforts are focused on recruiting and retaining Appalachian men, addressing cultural perceptions around masculinity and higher education.
These examples reflect a growing acknowledgment that reaching male students — particularly those from underserved or marginalized backgrounds — requires outreach, support and tailored messaging. TikTok’s male student influencers can tell you all about scholarships, salaries and why campus life is better when you’re a part of it. Montana’s email campaigns include pushing outdoor adventure and careers in conservation; their most successful social media campaigns have been geared toward veterans and military-affiliated students, populations trending heavily male.
At the University of Vermont, marketing messages and materials center on entrepreneurship, global engagement, international opportunities, career outcomes, professional development, and a vibrant school spirit — topics that, as Jay Jacobs notes, elevate messaging across the board without alienating women.
Recruiting is not a zero-sum game, says university administrators Jacobs and Nolin, invoking Richard Reeves and his notions of gender equality. Championing men in higher ed doesn’t mean turning back the clock on gender progress. It means moving forward, together.
