Bengaluru: In an unprecedented shift in an otherwise female-dominated field, male students accounted for 33% of the BSc Nursing graduates at the recent convocation of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS). More than 10,000 of the 31,057 graduating students were men.Five years ago, in 2021, this number was 1,838 (of the total 10,804), thus registering a 450% growth in the number of male students over the last five years. Among all the health students graduating in 2026, only two other fields were male-dominated — MBBS and B Pharm. While the gender divide in pharmacy is closing over the years, the difference between boys and girls in MBBS remained steady over the years.In MBBS, from 2022, there was an average gap of 465 students between boys and girls. In 2022, boys led by 581. While that gap narrowed to 198 in 2023, it hit a peak in 2025 with 774 students. In 2026, there were 4,125 boys and 3,712 girls graduating from RGUHS.In pharmacy studies, 3,720 boys graduated compared with 2,991 girls in 2026. The Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course was just the opposite, with girls dominating the field — in the 2026 convocation, 727 were boys and 1,752 were girls.“There is a strong demand for nursing and allied health courses. The next day you finish the course, you’ll be able to find a job. The job opportunities abroad are also aplenty. Japan, Australia and European countries like Germany are showing demand for nurses. While every other job is showing saturation, healthcare is just growing like never before. It is the job security that is growing,” said Dr Bhagvan BC, RGUHS vice-chancellor.“Job is easy to come by. Male nurses are preferred in many sectors like airport, industry, ambulance services, wherever night shifts exist, as home nurses and many more. Every hospital will have to maintain a gender ratio. It is difficult to get a good nurse. The pattern is that as soon as the registration is completed, the graduates get into a good hospital, earn one year experience, and fly out of the country. The pay is enviable abroad,” said S Shivakumar, president, Karnataka State Association of Managements of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences Institutions.Shivakumar noted that Kerala has a high number of male nurses. “For those who have family members as nurses, they know what it entails. There is a strong influx of male nursing students from Kerala. In Karnataka too, there is a demand as the govt seat fees are very low,” he added.Ali Khwaja, founder of Banjara Academy, said nursing is not as competitive as other courses and is easy to get into. “Most of them are average students, who are sure that they cannot crack NEET. They feel nursing is comparatively easy. And at the same time, there is more and more need for male nurses. They are considered physically more capable and thus preferred in cases that require lifting patients. And once they move abroad, there is no looking back,” he said.
