Ielts academic Writing Task 2

IELTS Writing Task 2: 'gender and university' essay
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Here's my full essay using last week's plan: 
Universities should accept equal numbers of male and female students in every 
subject. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
In my opinion, men and women should have the same educational opportunities. 
However, I do not agree with the idea of accepting equal proportions of each gender 
in every university subject. 
Having the same number of men and women on all degree courses is simply 
unrealistic. Student numbers on any course depend on the applications that the 
institution receives. If a university decided to fill courses with equal numbers of males 
and females, it would need enough applicants of each gender. In reality, many courses 
are more popular with one gender than the other, and it would not be practical to aim 
for equal proportions. For example, nursing courses tend to attract more female 
applicants, and it would be difficult to fill these courses if fifty per cent of the places 
needed to go to males. 
Apart from the practical concerns expressed above, I also believe that it would be 
unfair to base admission to university courses on gender. Universities should continue 
to select the best candidates for each course according to their qualifications. In this 

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way, both men and women have the same opportunities, and applicants know that 
they will be successful if they work hard to achieve good grades at school. If a female 
student is the best candidate for a place on a course, it would be wrong to reject her in 
favour of a male student with lower grades or fewer qualifications. 
In conclusion, the selection of university students should be based on merit, and it 
would be both impractical and unfair to change to a selection procedure based on 
gender. 
(265 words, band 9) 
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