Hi all! My name is Hiro, member of the data team.

Today I’d like you to step into one of the indicators for higher education – Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER).

To catch your eyes (honestly), here are the GERs as of 2014 for our classmates’ country (sorry if I missed any of you).

China: 39.39% (male 36.56%, female 42.53%)

India: 25.53% (male 25.74%, female 25.31%)

Japan: 63.36% (male 65.73%, female 60.88%)

Mexico: 29.94% (male 29.85%, female 30.03%)

Pakistan: 10.35% (male 10.06%, female 10.67%)

Peru : 40.51% (male 38.59%, female 42.50%) (as of 2010)

Korea: 95.34% (male 107.84%, female 81.27%) (as of 2013)

Singapore: 69.81% (male 68.82%, female 70.84%) (as of 2013)

U.S.A.: 86.66% (male 73.47%, female 100.70%)

Viet Nam: 30.48% (male 29.76%, female 31.23%)

You can find more detailed data by accessing this website below and sort by “Gross enrollment ratio, tertiary” indicator.

What struck me at first was China’s rapid growth over time (6.5% as of 1999), Korea’s significant gender gap (male > female) and that of the U.S (the opposite way, female > male).

But trends can always be explained in terms of policy context – for example, in Japan higher education policy clearly focued on increasing access to HE until 1970s and 1980s, after when shifted to quality, governance and diversification.

Please share any thoughts about your own or any country!

Thank you for reading!