The number of 19-year-old students participating in higher education reached an all-time high last year with more than half furthering their studies, a report has shown.
Over the past nine years the number of 19-year-olds in post secondary and tertiary education has increased from 31 per cent of students in 1999 to 55 per cent last year.
The report, drawn up by the National Commission for Higher Education, also shows that the average participation rate of 17-year-olds (the age when students complete secondary school) in post-secondary education stood at an average of 63 per cent over the past five years.
The total student population in further and higher education increased by just over 50 per cent between 1998 and 2008. This was mainly due to a significant increase in the number of students attending day programmes at the Malta College of Arts Science and Technology, set up in 2001.
Although still out of reach, these figures bring Malta a little closer to the EU's target of having 85 per cent of all students carrying on with their studies beyond secondary school by 2010.
The report describes the further education (post-secondary and vocational) and higher education (beyond post-secondary level) sector in Malta and will be one of the tools used to draw up a national strategy for higher education once the commission completes the consultation process in April.
The strategy will address various issues including making Maltese higher education more competitive, the need for balance between study and research and the identification of national economic and social needs in terms of employment, in order to outline ways to direct students towards existing gaps, Education Minister Dolores Cristina said during the launch of the report yesterday.
The report showed that 97 per cent of tertiary education was offered by the University of Malta, with three per cent offered by the private sector. There was an increase of about eight per cent per year in university enrolments for undergraduate, bachelors, masters and doctoral programmes between 2000 and 2006 compared to a 2.8 per cent in the EU-27.
The largest number of enrolments in 2008 was in the field of social science, business and law (37 per cent) followed by humanities and arts (16 per cent) and education (16 per cent).
A cross-country comparison for Malta and the EU-27 revealed that Malta registered significant progress in the number of maths, science and technology students graduating from the university with an increase of 12.3 per cent between 2000 and 2006, when compared to the 2.5 per cent registered by the EU bloc.
Malta is also experiencing an upward trend in the number of students enrolled in doctoral programmes, which increased from 32 students in 2001 to 114 last year - an annual increase of 40 per cent.
Six per cent of adults in Malta were participating in life-long learning compared to just under 10 per cent in the EU.
One in 10 Maltese students studied abroad in 2006, two-thirds of them in the UK. During the same period, just over 600 foreign students chose to study in Malta, making up six per cent of the student population. This is a relatively high proportion given Malta's small higher education system, according to the report.
Mrs Cristina said the commission is due to conclude a consultation process with stakeholders in education by April, ahead of drawing up a new strategy for higher education that would move hand in hand with the ongoing reform in primary and secondary education.
As part of the strategy, Mrs Cristina said, there was also a need for changes to the Education Act and the setting up of new Directorate for Higher Education within the ministry.
The report can be viewed on www.nche.gov.mt