What can we learn from women's colleges?

Are women's colleges still relevant?

Students at women's colleges report higher levels of engagement in and satisfaction with their educations. While women may outnumber and outperform men as undergraduates at coed schools, they remain underrepresented in leadership roles there. What are women's colleges doing to better serve their students, and what can coeducational schools learn from them?

At the combined conference of NASPA/ACPA in Orlando in April, four women discussed "The Women's College Advantage: Research Implications and Practical Lessons."

They were: Dr. Jillian Kinzie and Amanda Niskode, from Indiana University-Bloomington; Jennie Robinson Kloos, from College of St. Catherine's MN; and Sarah Timko, from Winston-Salem College NC.

As associate director for postsecondary research at Indiana University-Bloomington, Kinzie has long been interested in women's education. She now works with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) research, and also with the Women's College Coalition, and seeks to ensure that coed colleges continue to serve female students.

Women's campuses

Women are now almost 60% of undergraduates and the majority in most professional graduate programs, except the MBA. Women are also more likely than their male peers to enroll in college, hold high educational aspirations and attain degrees. But subtle issues remain.