| Sumario: | The article discusses the sex and social class structure of the first year Scottish university student population of 1962-1972. It reports that in the decade of expansion that followed the publication of the Robbins Report, women from middle class or non-manual homes, have tended to displace manual working class men in the Scottish universities. Several related factors have produced this trend. They include a consistent middle class superiority in public examination performance between both sexes. Whatever the explanation of social class differences in achievement, their implications for the changing pattern of university entry are clear. As increasing proportions of women joined a more sluggishly expanding body of men in applying for scarce university places, prevailing admissions standards were raised. Relative to working class applicants, middle class men and women were better qualified to meet the rising requirements that obtained particularly in pure, non-science subjects and in certain professional courses. Middle class women thereby tended to displace working class men in two ways. Firstly, the resultant pressure on non-science university places led to a faster quinquennial growth in these areas with the observed consequences for the composition of the student body.
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