There was a slight increase in tertiary education graduates last year, according to new data from the National Statistics Office. 

Malta went from having 5,472 tertiary education graduates in 2022 to 5,833 in 2023, an increase of 6.6%. 

The data found that 60.1% of all graduates were female, with women surpassing men at every level of tertiary education. According to the NSO, there were 151 female graduates for every 100 male ones. 

It also noted that this increase also reflected an increase in the number of institutions offering tertiary education. 

More than half of tertiary graduates (52.5%) obtained their Bachelor's degree while 34.9% had read for a Master's degree. 

The majority of last year's graduates were between 20 and 29 years old (67.9%), while foreign graduates made up some 26.2% of the cohort, an increase of 12.3 percentage points when compared to the previous year. 

Some 71.9% of 2023's graduates had completed a full-time programme while there was also an increase of 16.8 percentage points in those graduating from a part-time programme. 

The data also shows that while the majority of students pursuing a Bachelor's (81.1%) and Master's (77.5%) degrees in Malta are Maltese nationals, the trend is inverse when it comes to shorty cycle tertiary courses and doctoral degrees, with the majority of graduates in those two fields (67.8% and 60.3% respectively) were foreign nationals. 

The most popular field of study was 'Business, Administration and Law', with the field accounting for over a fourth (29.7%) of all graduates in 2023. 'Health and Welfare' was the second most popular field, accounting for 23.2%, while 'Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Veterinary field was the least popular field of study, accounting for just 0.2% of graduates.