Female students keep exceeding males in tertiary education enrolment

Students enrolled in formal and home-grown tertiary education during the academic year 2014-2015 amounted to 13,216, a 5.1% increase from the previous academic year.

Overall, female students exceeded males, outnumbering males at all levels with the exception of ISCED level 8, and accounted for 55.9 per cent of total students in tertiary education.

Students following a Bachelor’s or equivalent course (ISCED 6) amounted to 53.2 per cent of total students at tertiary level. This was followed by courses at Master’s or equivalent level – ISCED level 7 (26.8 per cent) – ISCED level 5 (19.2 per cent) and ISCED level 8 (0.9 per cent). In total, tertiary students increased by 5.1 per cent in 2015.

Females increased by 6.9 per cent, while males increased by 2.8 per cent over the previous academic year.

The average age for students enrolled in a Bachelor’s or equivalent course (ISCED 6) was 22 years, while the average for Master’s or equivalent courses (ISCED 7) was 28 years.

The most popular field of study in tertiary education was business, administration and law with 25.7 per cent of total students. This was followed by students in health and welfare (18.9 per cent), arts and humanities (12.0 per cent), education (9.9 per cent), and social sciences, journalism and information (9.5 per cent).

Figures show that male students had a stronger presence in the fields of information and communication technologies (82.4 per cent of all students in this field), engineering, manufacturing and construction (79.4 per cent) and agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary (60.5 per cent). On the other hand, females constituted the majority in the field of education (80.2 per cent of all students in this field), followed by health and welfare (67.5 per cent), and social sciences, journalism and information (62.2 per cent).

The remaining fields of education showed a balanced enrolment between genders.

Out of the total students enrolled in tertiary education during 2014/2015, 6.2 per cent were foreigners.

The highest presence of foreigners in tertiary education was in ISCED level 7, where 14.2 per cent of students at this level were non-Maltese nationals, mainly from the United Kingdom.

Overall, foreign students increased by 11.1 per cent when compared to the previous academic year.