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Three-quarters of 16-17 year olds continued studying at post-secondary level 8 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 NOVEMBER 2023 NEWS NEWS KURT SANSONE THE share of 16-17-year-old students that continued stud- ying at post-secondary lev- el accounted for 76% of all 16–17-year-olds, figures out today show. Female students who contin- ued studying after Form 5 ac- counted for 79% of all young women aged 16 and 17, while among males the share stood at 72%. The National Statistics Of- fice said on Tuesday that there were 28,645 students enrolled at post-secondary and tertiary levels of education in the scho- lastic year 2021/2022 with 55% being women. Foreigners ac- counted for 21% of all students at both levels. The most popular field of study at post-secondary voca- tional level was 'Services' (26%), whereas the most popular field of study at tertiary level was 'Business, administration and law' (27%) A breakdown of figures shows that the number of students en- rolled in post-secondary levels stood at 9,610, whilst 19,035 were enrolled in tertiary ed- ucation. Males outnumbered females in post-secondary edu- cation by 1.3 percentage points, whilst there were more females enrolled in tertiary education than males by 16.1 percentage points. Post-secondary students Post-secondary students en- rolled in sixth forms and oth- er similar institutions totalled 9,610 during academic year 2021-2022, an increase of less than 0.1 points over the previ- ous academic year. This reference year saw more males than females enrolled at post-secondary level, as op- posed to the previous two scho- lastic years. The largest proportion of post-secondary students were aged under 20 years (89%). For- eign students enrolled in such institutions amounted to 1,160, accounting for 12%. The share of 16-17-year-old students enrolled at post-sec- ondary level accounted for 76% of the 16–17-year-old resident population. The share of the 16–17-year- old female population enrolled at post-secondary level was higher than the share of males by 7.3 percentage points. The vast majority of students at post-secondary level were en- rolled in state-run institutions (86%). Slightly more than half of the students were enrolled in cours- es or programmes of vocation- al study orientation (52%). The most popular field of study among students following a vo- cational programme was 'Ser- vices' (26%), followed by stu- dents enrolled in programmes related to the fields 'Engineer- ing, manufacturing and con- struction' (16%) and 'Health and welfare' (15%). Tertiary students Students enrolled in tertiary level courses totalled 19,035 during academic year 2021- 2022, an increase of 3.8% when compared to the previous ac- ademic year. Female students comprised 58% of the total stu- dents enrolled at the tertiary level. The number of students at this level who were studying on a full-time basis amounted to 12,624, or 66% of the total. Part- time enrolments showed an in- crease of 1.1% over the previous academic year. The largest proportion of ter- tiary students were engaged in courses at ISCED level 6 (Bach- elor's or equivalent) (53%), fol- lowed by ISCED level 7 (Mas- ter's or equivalent) at 33%. More than half of the students enrolled at tertiary level were aged between 20 and 29 (54%). Female students outnumbered their male counterparts at al- most all tertiary ISCED levels, except for ISCED 8 (PhD equiv- alent). During academic year 2021- 2022, foreign students at the tertiary level totalled 4,709, equivalent to 25% of all ter- tiary enrolments, where 13% were other EU nationals and 12% were non-EU nationals. This resulted in an increase of 7.1 percentage points of foreign students over the previous aca- demic year. At tertiary level, the most pop- ular field of study was 'Business, administration and law' with 5,196 students, or 27% of the total number of students. This was followed by the 'Health and welfare' field with 4,052 stu- dents, or 21%. The least popu- lar field of study at tertiary level was 'Agriculture, forestry, fish- eries and veterinary' scoring an uptake of only 0.3%. There were 28,645 students enrolled in post- secondary and tertiary level courses, the NSO says, of which 21% are foreigners The largest proportion of post- secondary students were aged under 20 years (89%). Foreign students enrolled in such institutions amounted to 1,160, accounting for 12%