Maltese students are the European Union’s second-least likely to take their studies further past the non- compulsory stage, according to figures released by Eurostat.
According to the EU’s statistical arm, Malta has the second-lowest proportion of students who are continuing with post-compulsory education. The report in fact showed that only 12.4 per cent of Malta’s population in 2015 continued with post- compulsory education compared to other European states.
Finland scored the highest with 29.2% of its students furthering their academic careers, followed by Belgium scored the highest with 24.9 %. Post-compulsory education includes sixth form education, higher education centres and university.
Although Malta ranks the second lowest in the post-compulsory stakes, the situation has improved substantially with only 8.2 per cent having completed post-compulsory education in 2013, a figure that rose to 12.1 per cent in 2014.
Interestingly, O-level and A-level results support the EU statistical report since the number of students passing their exams, which enables them to carry on into higher education, is getting lower and lower. Statistics released by the MATSEC board show that roughly only one out of three A-level students managed to get the grades needed in order to gain entry into the University of Malta.
Just 34 per cent of students got their full Matriculation certificate this year. Out of a total of 4,106 students who sat for the May exams, 1,399 were awarded the certificate. This is in line with what was achieved in 2016, when 1,391 had managed to be awarded the certificate.
Yet, on the other hand, the number of students graduating from the University of Malta has increased by 15 per cent in just four years with 3,557 graduates in the 2014/2015 academic year.