More parents believe that their daughters should go to university than their sons, according to a new survey.

Boys also have lower university aspirations than girls, the study by the research firm Kirk-land Rowell found.

The survey of 137,000 parents and 288,000 pupils across Britain suggested that girls’ academic superiority at school may be leading more boys to turn their backs on education. Government funding chiefs have given warning that men could find it difficult to secure well-paid work in future as women increasingly dominate university courses.

The new research, reported in The Times Educational Supplement, found that 66.7 per cent of parents with daughters aged 11 to 16 said it was important that their child went to university. But only 61.5 per cent of parents felt the same about their sons.

Girls were also more ambitious, with 79.9 per cent saying that they wanted to go to university, compared with 75.2 per cent of boys.

Kate Myers, a specialist in gender issues in education at Cambridge University, said: “The fact that the girls are getting positive feedback from their school teachers encourages them and their parents to think university is an option.

“Once parents wanted their daughters to find a husband who could support them. Now they look to a university degree for that support.”

The research came as teachers and careers advisers reported that boys were considering a wider range of options, such as apprenticeships, when they left school. The trend is thought to have been fuelled in part by the high profile of entrepreneurs such as Sir Alan Sugar and Sir Richard Branson.

Figures show that 47 per cent of women aged 30 and under had gone into higher education by 2004, compared with only 37 per cent of young men. Last year, 57 per cent of graduates with first-class degrees were women.

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