The number of students who graduated from the University of Malta in 2014/2015 witnessed a large increase of 15.1% when compared to four years prior, according to a recent report by the National Statistics Office.

The Regional Statistics report, which was published last week, stated that the academic year of 2014/2015 saw a total of 3,557 graduates. In the same academic year, a total of 11,599 students were pursuing and attending full-time and part-time courses. This number increased by 12% compared to four years prior, the 2010/2011 academic year.

The number of female graduates was higher than the number of male graduates for all qualification categories. In total,59.5% of graduates were females.

From the graduates, 48.4% obtained a Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent qualification. 35.5% obtained a Master’s degree, or equivalent qualification. The former saw a decrease of 1.6%and the latter an increase of 3.6% when compared to those results of 2010/2011.

It is interesting to note that the share of graduates pursuing Master’s degrees, Bachelor’s degrees and Undergraduate diplomas per 1,000 inhabitants was highest in Gozo, followed by the Western District.

Resembling the situation in academic year 2010/2011, the report showed that the most popular fields of study were social science, business and law, health and welfare and humanities and arts at 37.5%, 21.3% and 12.6% respectively.

The report states that the education and humanities fields of study have decreased in popularity by a drop of 4.5% and 3.3% respectively. Health and Welfare has increased in popularity by 3.1%.