Latest NSO data shows dip in Maltese students enrolled in tertiary education 

Although Maltese students constituted the majority of enrolments at both post-secondary and tertiary levels, data published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) shows a decline in local student enrolment for the academic year 2021-2022.

The data, published on Tuesday, indicates that Maltese students accounted for 75.3% of students enrolled in tertiary education between 2021 and 2022, while foreigners accounted for 24.7%.

According to the data, the number of Maltese students enrolled in tertiary education between 2020 and 2021 totalled 15,103, but this number dropped to 14,326 the following year. 

The National Statistics Office further reported that international students comprised 20.5% of the total student population at the post-secondary and tertiary levels. At the post-secondary level, most students were under 20 years old (88.9% ), and international students accounted for 12.1% of the total enrolments. 

The majority of post-secondary students were enrolled in state-run institutions (86.2%), and more than half of the students were enrolled in vocational study programs, with ‘services’ being the most popular field (26.1%)

European data

The latest data from Malta indicates that while there has been an overall increase of 2.5% in student enrolment in post-secondary and tertiary institutions during the academic year 2021-2022, when compared to the preceding academic year, there is still a long way to go to catch up with European counterparts.

According to the latest Eurostat data, in 2022, the percentage of the population with tertiary-level education in Malta stood at 31.2%, a drop from 31.7% in the previous year and still below the overall EU average of 34.3%. 

According to the European Commission’s Education and Training Monitor report, which was published in May 2022, the tertiary educational attainment rate of people aged 25-34 in Malta remained stable up until 2020, standing at 40.1%, which is slightly below the EU-level target of 45% that has been set as part of the EU-wide 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. 

This contrasts with Malta’s public expenditure on education, which, according to the European Commission, is above the EU average and increased by 61.5% between 2010 and 2019. In 2019, the Maltese government’s expenditure on education was 5.3% of GDP, compared to the EU average of 4.7%. 

“Given low education outcomes, this suggests some challenges in the efficiency and effectiveness of spending and highlights the need for strengthening the evaluation of investments in education and training,” the report remarks.