Almost 6,000 graduated at tertiary level in 2023

Almost 6,000 students graduated at tertiary level in 2023, an increase of 6.6% over the previous year, figures out on Thursday show.

The National Statistics Office said more than half of tertiary graduates (60.1%) were women with females surpassing males at all levels of tertiary education.

The NSO said 5,833 students from formal education programmes delivered in Malta with a minimum duration of one semester of full-time study, or equivalent in part-time. The figure includes all graduates irrespective of whether they are residing in Malta or abroad.

The population of educational institutions considered include institutions delivering formal education programmes from Malta, whether online or face-to-face, at tertiary level.

The largest share of tertiary graduates (52.5%) attained a qualification at ISCED Level 6 (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent). This was followed by 34.9% of total tertiary graduates who attained a qualification at ISCED Level 7 (Master’s or equivalent).

A quarter were foreign graduates

The majority of tertiary-level graduates (67.9%) was made up of persons aged between 20 and 29 years. Foreign graduates totalled 1,526, equivalent to 26.2% of tertiary-level graduates, an increase of 12.3% over the previous year. Non-EU citizens comprised the largest proportion of all foreign tertiary graduates (54.5%).

During 2023, 71.9% of graduates attained a qualification from a full-time programme, whilst graduates from part-time programmes increased by 16.8% over the previous year.

The majority of graduates in ISCED levels 6 (Bachelor’s or equivalent) and 7 (Master’s or equivalent) were Maltese (81.1% and 77.5% respectively), whilst in ISCED levels 5 (Short-cycle tertiary education) and 8 (Doctoral or equivalent), the majority of graduates were foreign nationals (67.8% and 60.3% respectively).

Most popular was business and law

The ‘Business, administration and law’ field of study was the most popular field amongst tertiary graduates in 2023, accounting for over one fourth of the total at 29.7%. The field ‘Health and welfare’ was the second most popular field of study among graduates at 23.2%

‘Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary’ was the least popular field of study among tertiary graduates, amounting to 0.2%

The majority of graduates in ISCED levels 5, 6 and 7 were graduating from state-run institutions, whilst those graduating at ISCED level 8 were equally distributed in both state-run and independently-run institutions.

Increase in women graduating in sciences

In 2023, 14.2% of graduates attained a qualification in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Of these, 557 were males while 272 were females. Nonetheless, female STEM graduates increased by 10.1% over the previous year, while male STEM graduates decreased by 6.7%.