University is a critical timepoint for students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career pathway. Gender differences in the persistence of STEM students have been established, with female students more at risk for attrition from this career pathway. While the persistence of undergraduate STEM students has been a focus in the international literature, Australian studies in this space are limited. This cross-institutional study at eight different Australian universities set out to investigate how student experiences of science identity, belonging, and discrimination, which are known to impact student attrition, were affecting the persistence of students at university and in the science career pipeline. Three hundred eighty-six students who had experienced at least 1 year of university completed a questionnaire investigating these factors. Findings showed that high levels of science identity and belonging were associated with increased persistence intentions of female-identifying science students. Additionally, this same effect was found for male-identifying students in the more ‘gender-balanced’ science disciplines. Students also reported experiences of gender discrimination. Female students commonly reported negative experiences relating to group work, whereas male students reported initiatives to recruit more women into STEM as discriminatory against men. These results highlight potential ‘at-risk’ groups for attrition in the STEM fields, and provide an insight into the male student perspective on the gender equity in STEM discussion.

对于科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）职业道路的学生来说，大学是一个关键的时间点。在STEM学生的持久性方面已经建立了性别差异，而女学生更容易遭受此职业道路的减员。虽然本科生STEM学生的坚持性一直是国际文学的重点，但澳大利亚在这一领域的研究是有限的。这项在澳大利亚八所不同大学进行的跨机构研究旨在调查学生的科学认同，归属感和歧视经历如何影响学生的减员，这些经历如何影响学生在大学和科学职业发展过程中的毅力。接受过至少一年大学教育的386名学生完成了一份调查表，调查了这些因素。研究结果表明，高水平的科学认同感和归属感与识别女性的理科学生的持久性意愿增加有关。此外，在“性别平衡”的科学学科中，识别男性的学生也发现了同样的效果。学生们还报告了性别歧视的经历。女学生通常报告与小组工作有关的消极经历，而男学生则报告说是招募更多女性加入STEM的举措，这是对男性的歧视。这些结果突出显示了STEM领域中潜在的“高风险”减员群体，并为STEM讨论中男学生对性别平等的观点提供了见识。