Student enrolments in post-secondary and tertiary institutions during academic year 2021-2022 increased by 2.5 per cent over the preceding academic year, to reach 28,645. A fifth of them were foreigners, official data issued on Tuesday shows.
The most popular field of study at post-secondary vocational level was ‘Services’ (26.1 per cent), and Business, administration and law’ (27.3 per cent) at tertiary level.
Foreigners accounted for 20.5 per cent of the total students enrolled at post-secondary and tertiary levels, the National Statistics Office said.
Student enrolments in post-secondary and tertiary institutions during academic year 2021-2022 increased by 2.5 per cent over the preceding academic year.
The number of students enrolled in post-secondary levels stood at 9,610, whilst 19,035 were enrolled in tertiary education. Males outnumbered females in post-secondary education by 1.3 percentage points, whilst there were more females enrolled in tertiary education than males by 16.1 percentage points.
Post-secondary students
Post-secondary students enrolled in sixth forms and other post-secondary institutions totalled 9,610 during academic year 2021-2022, an increase of less than 0.1 per cent over the previous academic year. This year saw more boys than girls enrolled at post-secondary level, as opposed to the previous two scholastic years.
The largest proportion of post-secondary students were aged under 20 years (88.9 per cent). Foreign students enrolled in such institutions amounted to 1,160, accounting for 12.1 per cent of the total students enrolled at post-secondary level.
The share of 16-17-year-old students enrolled at post-secondary level accounted for 75.6 per cent of the 16–17-year-old resident population. The share of the 16–17-year-old female population was higher than the share of males by 7.3 percentage points.
The vast majority of students at post-secondary level were enrolled in state-run institutions (86.2 per cent). Slightly more than half of the students were enrolled in courses or programmes of vocational study orientation (51.6 per cent)). The most popular was ‘Services’ (26.1 per cent), followed by students enrolled in programmes related ‘Engineering, manufacturing and construction’ (16.3 per cent) and ‘Health and welfare’ (14.7 per cent).
Students enrolled in tertiary level courses totalled 19,035 during academic year 2021-2022, an increase of 3.8 per cent when compared to academic year 2020-2021. Female students comprised 58.1 per cent.
The largest proportion of tertiary students were engaged in courses at ISCED level 6 (Bachelor’s or equivalent) (52.8 per cent), followed by ISCED level 7 (Master’s or equivalent) at 32.5 per cent.
Business, administration and law most popular, agriculture least followed
More than half of the students enrolled at tertiary level were aged between 20 and 29 (53.7 per cent). Female students outnumbered their male counterparts at almost all tertiary ISCED levels, except for ISCED 8 (PhD equivalent).
At tertiary level, the most popular field of study was ’Business, administration and law’ with 5,196 students, or 27.3 per cent of the total number of students. This was followed by the ‘Health and welfare’ field with 4,052 students, or 21.3 per cent of the total.
The least popular field of study at tertiary level was ‘Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary’ scoring an uptake of only 0.3 per cent.