Student enrolments in post-secondary and tertiary institutions during academic year 2017-2018 increased by 4.1 per cent over the preceding academic year, totalling 25,628, the NSO said today.
Post-secondary students enrolled in Sixth Forms and other post-secondary institutions totalled 10,408 during academic year 2017-2018, an increase of 2.1 per cent over the previous academic year. The largest proportion of these students (85.4 per cent) was aged between 15 and 19. Foreign students enrolled in such institutions amounted to 1,050, accounting for 10.1 per cent of the total students enrolled at post-secondary level.
The vast majority of enrolments (85.3 per cent) at this level were in state-run institutions. Those enrolled in vocational institutions accounted for 50.7 per cent of total students at post-secondary level. The most popular field of study among vocational students was ‘Services’ (21.8 per cent), followed by ‘Health and welfare’ (18.7 per cent) and ‘Engineering, manufacturing and construction’ (16.1 per cent).
Tertiary students enrolled in tertiary level courses numbered 15,220 during academic year 2017-2018, an increase of 5.5 per cent when compared to academic year 2016-2017. Female students comprised of 55.9 per cent of the total students enrolled in tertiary level courses.
The number of students at this level who were studying on a full-time basis amounted to 10,825, or 71.1 per cent of the total. Nevertheless, part-time enrolments showed an increase of 14.9 per cent over the previous academic year. The largest proportion of tertiary students (56.2 per cent) were engaged in courses at ISCED level 6 (Bachelor’s or equivalent), followed by enrolments at ISCED level 7 (Master’s or equivalent) with 29.3 per cent.
Most tertiary students were aged between 20 and 24 (45.6 per cent), followed by those under 20 years (21.2 per cent). Female students outnumbered their male counterparts at almost all ISCED levels of tertiary education except at ISCED 8 (PhD equivalent).
During academic year 2017-2018, foreign students totalled 1,623, accounting for 10.7 per cent of all tertiary level enrolments. This accounted to an increase of 2.3 percentage points over the previous academic year. At tertiary level the ‘Education’ field was highly dominated by females (87.5 per cent), whereas the ‘Information and Communication Technologies’ had a very high (84.8 per cent) male participation.
The most popular fields of study were ’Business, administration and law’ with 4,107 students or 27.0 per cent of the total, and ‘Health and welfare’ with 3,147 students or 20.7 per cent of the total. The least popular field of study at the tertiary level was ‘Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary’ scoring an uptake of only 0.4 per cent.