Female Students Represent 20% of Total Enrollment, with a Goal to Increase This Figure
More than fifty young girls and boys from Vigo visited the campus this Friday to celebrate International Girls in ICT Day at the School of Telecommunication Engineering. This awareness initiative, promoted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), aims to encourage young girls to pursue careers in technology and reduce the gender digital divide. At UVigo, the event is held under the slogan Elas Fan TIC and is usually celebrated on the last Thursday of April. However, due to scheduling conflicts with schools and the university, it was moved up to this Friday.
Coordinated by Professor Soledad Torres, the school’s Equality Representative, and sponsored by the Indra-UVigo Chair in Engineering and Technology, fifth and sixth-grade students from Javier Sensat School participated in two programming and robotics workshops led by students from the school. These workshops provided an opportunity to learn programming, explore robotics, and, most importantly, reinforce the idea from an early age that technology is not gendered—everyone has the potential to build a successful career in the ICT sector.
The workshops were led by a group of volunteers from the school, with Laura Pardo, a final-year student, at the forefront. “I’m delighted to collaborate with Soledad and the school’s director, Rebeca Díaz, in organizing these activities,” Laura explains. “I always knew I wanted to study engineering because it was a familiar field in my family—both Telecommunication Engineering and related higher education programs—so I never had any doubts,” she adds. Although female students are a minority in classrooms, she never felt at a disadvantage: “I’ve always had unconditional support from both my female and male classmates.”
Women Make Up 20% of the Student Body, 25% in First-Year Enrollment
Currently, female students represent 20% of the total student population at the School of Telecommunication Engineering. This figure aligns with national statistics reflecting the low interest among women in pursuing university degrees related to ICT, which in turn affects female representation in the industry.
For years, the School of Telecommunication Engineering in Vigo has been actively addressing this issue through various awareness initiatives, welcoming primary and secondary school students, and showing them that “Elas Fan TIC” (They Do ICT), the slogan of this Friday’s event, or “Elas Fan CienTec”, the theme of a previous event held on April 11, to name just a few examples.
Awareness Efforts Are Starting to Show Results
Step by step, things are beginning to change. This year, the percentage of female students enrolled in the first year has increased to 25% (37 out of 143 students, including both the Spanish and English programs). This marks a four-point increase from the previous year (21% in 2023/2024) and a five-point increase from two years ago (19% in 2022/2023).
“We must continue working, implementing promotional initiatives that incorporate a gender perspective—focused on highlighting the role of women in ICT and sparking interest among young women in this field,” explains Soledad Torres. She adds that years of gender-focused outreach, especially around key awareness dates, “are finally starting to bear fruit.”
Source: Duvi, Código Cero and La Voz de Galicia