Women are disappearing from subjects already dominated by men, according to an exclusive new analysis of student numbers. Five years ago, women made up 24% of computer science students in higher education. Now they make up just 19% reports the Guardian. In 10 years, there has been no improvement in the uptake of women in mathematical sciences - the proportion remains stable at 38% - or engineering and technology, where women still make up just 15% of student numbers.

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency also suggest that women are falling back into more "feminine" subjects than their predecessors. The proportion of female students has risen by three percentage points in subjects related to education, where they now make up 76% of students, and the creative arts, where they make up 60%. The biggest gender split comes in "subjects allied to medicine" - which include qualifications in nursing and nutrition and exclude straight medical degrees - where women now make up 82% of students.

Engineering is the subject with the smallest proportion of women, with fewer than one in seven students female. Peter Hicks, a member of the education and skills panel of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, is concerned. "We need to be very worried that ... these figure are low and not getting any better. In my 40 years of teaching electrical engineering at Manchester University women never made up more than 5% of my classes. The UK desperately needs engineers - we can't afford to lose what is effectively half of its talent."

According to Hicks, the problem starts long before university. "The ignorance about STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] subjects is deep rooted," he says. "It's not just parents, it's careers advisers in schools who are often detached from the modern reality of these professions and have a distorted idea of what they're like".

Gilly McIvor is one woman who might have made an ideal engineering degree candidate. At 26, she is the only female apprentice training to be an electrical engineer at the Diageo factory in Glasgow, which bottles whisky. While women work on the 10 large production lines in the factory, management, HR and administration, there had never been a woman on the mechanical or electrical engineering team. McIvor regrets the fact that it took her a long time to get there.

"My school aptitude test flagged up that I should do something practical, but everyone said I should do a more academic degree," she says. She opted not to go to university at all. "In the end I just worked in call centres and sales for a few years. I could have been here a lot earlier."

Now she's on the scheme, McIvor says she loves her job. "I don't think I've ever experienced sexism," she says. "I was a bit worried when I started that it would be 'all boys together' and they'd resent having a woman around, but the only thing that ever bothered me was when they kept opening doors for me -and that's kind of trivial! I think it's misconceptions that put women off, not what it's actually like."

The statistics, however, do show some good news for women. Although they are still in the minority, women have made progress in the physical sciences, where they now make up 41% of students, compared to 36% 10 years ago. Once, the vast majority of doctors were male; now women make up 58% of enrolments in medicine and dentistry courses. Other subjects dominated by women - such as languages and law - are hardly second-class disciplines either. Indeed, the biggest jump in female representation came in veterinary science, where female enrolments increased from 67% to 77% in 10 years.

In total, female students now make up 59% of the student body for all subjects including postgraduates - compared to 55% 10 years ago - and they tend to achieve better results than men.

To view the full articles please visit The Guardian Education webpage here.