That the Parliament welcomes the news that action will be taken to address the gender gap in university intake as part of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Gender Action Plan; understands that, since the 1990s, the rates of participation of young men have consistently fallen behind their female counterparts and that in 2015 just 42.5% of undergraduates in Scotland were male, compared with 57.5% who were female; further understands that the SFC has noted that there is already a significant amount of work in progress to tackle female underrepresentation in particular courses but that there is much less being done to tackle the general underrepresentation of male students; notes the disparity in drop-out rates between the genders, with males from deprived backgrounds much less likely to complete their course; appreciates that there are many factors that can lead to this disparity, and welcomes the commitment to ensure that all, regardless of their circumstance, will have equal opportunity to access university.