I disagree. I'm from coutry with free education. Problem with lack of engineers is not too little women. The problem is that state funds many universities that are not useful to state's best interest. And stupid people who start studying something they know won't be good job. But you cannot eliminate stupid people from this planet... Oh, and from my experience sentance "You still invest about five years or more of your life into your education instead of earning money" is not true. I went to university on daily studies. For first two years I had many part-time jobs (for exmaple: teaching kids maths). On third year I start my first job in my field (IT). I was able to work half-time AND study at the same time. Money I earn was maybe not enough to support myself completly but it was enough to help my parent (I was still living with them). On my last year I got proper job in field I wanted and after I finished my university I was still working there. You can work and study.

In my country, the public university is free. Nevertheless, there are students who spend most of their years wandering around getting into politics, alcohol, or drugs. And, of course, there are others who make the most profit of it. I agree that education should not be that expensive, but the ones who really want it will make it no matter whatever it takes. And the others will just waste time and money. And it happens anywhere in the world regardless their economic positions.

Don't tell us 'there's not enough women doing such and such'. We do what we want. In my IT lectures, I was one of two girls. I went into IT because I wanted to.

@Katinka Min "Only about 20% of beginning students [for engeneer studies] are female" - and that is problem because...? On my year (Computer Science) there was about 10% of female students (including me). But how this is a problem? On my friend's year (she studied Pedagogics) there were ZERO men. Same with my other firends' studies - midwifery. These are examples of needed jobs (teacher, midwife) for my country right now, but somehow littler or zero men in these field is not a problem. But little women in STEM fields? Why that is a problem?

@Katinka Min I was not in the most difficult studies (law, medicine) but I was studying Computer Science. Which is still pretty tough. There was obviously times when I had to study to exams at nights, but I was still able to do 20h per week job. And I had weekends free so I could also work at weekends (but I didn't want or needed that). On my last year I had little classes, that is true (howerever most of my work still had to be done from home, including my master thesis). Working and studying can be done for most fields - it's just time management and making right choice ("I cannot go to this part because I have work tomorrow and big exams in two days"). You are seriously telling me that you had classses 12 hours per day, big exams every two weeks (with a lot of studying at home for them) and no free weekends? If you did, I would understand how you couldn't be able to find a part-time job (though these is still smaller part time jobs, like teaching kids maths or something like that).

No, as of 2015, 13.5% of the US population were living below the poverty line (not "more than 50%") Were you just making numbers up or did you really believe your statistic? The importance of education being free (or at least affordable) I do, however, agree with... but next time please do some fact checking before you start providing data.

In the UK the average student is leaving uni with a debt of £50000.... And then cant even get s job because they have no experience. Uni is just a money making scheme.

Monilip, your uni must have been a lot less work than mine, if you could work that much while studying. Hawkeye, I didn't look up the statistics before posting, hence my wording 'I think' plus a question mark. I remembered watching a program about how half of the US population are not paying taxes because thy are under the income limit - which is sort of of the equivalent to poverty in my country. I just checked - you guys are making a distinction between poverty and low income, we don't. My mistake (but still abysmal figures for a country that will end up a 2nd world one if its middle class keeps shrinking this rapidly.) Stanimira, we have a massive lack of engineers in my country. Only about 20% of beginning students are female (actually a lot more then when I went to uni. It was about 5% back then). Cliche or not, the math isn't hard to do. But at least there seems some change afoot.

Your country shortage of engineers has nothing to do with women not joining, why do you talk with cliché s?

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Then imagine the price if you had to pay tuition. Don't whine when you have the opportunity for a free education and still have to pay for a living. Surprise, that's life

Oh shut up, Norton. No human being should EVER have to experience mountains of debt because they want to further their education.