Gender differences in college students’ academic performance during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Is females’ recovery lagging behind?

Using administrative transcript records for all students enrolled in public postsecondary institutions in the state of North Carolina between the 2013–14 and 2022–23 academic years, merged with students’ high school records from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, we document gender gaps in academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic at both two- and four-year colleges and universities. We find that academic outcomes for female and male students were trending similarly prior to the pandemic, but particularly since the fall of 2021, female college students have been passing fewer classes and experiencing slower credit accumulation, while we do not see corresponding gaps in the number of attempted credits. The gap is almost one fewer credit earned per year for female community college students, and 0.6 fewer credits at four-year institutions. There are also signs of growing gender gaps in persistence. We show suggestive evidence that the disparities in pandemic recovery for college students may in part be driven by larger learning losses for female students in secondary school. The findings have important implications for education and labor market research and policy. • We document gender differences in college students’ academic recovery after COVID. • First-year female college students are performing relatively worse than males. • The differences are observed at both two- and four-year institutions. • There are signs of growing gender gaps in persistence. • Difference may be driven in part by larger learning loss in high school for females.