In the 2023/2024 academic year
Number of students enrolled in Higher Education establishments in the Region increased by 3.7%
The Regional Directorate of Statistics of Madeira (DREM), in association with International Education Day, has today updated its website with the Time Series of Education Statistics for the Autonomous Region of Madeira, including information on Tertiary Education for the 2023/2024 academic year. The data presented is sourced from the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC).
The following indicators are highlighted:
- In the 2023/2024 academic year, the Autonomous Region of Madeira (ARM) had 8 tertiary education institutions, distributed among 4 universities (all public) and 4 polytechnics (2 public and 2 private);
- There were 788 available slots for Tertiary Education candidates (750 for bachelor’s 1st cycle programs and 38 for Integrated Master's programs), representing a decrease of 1.0% compared to the previous academic year, with 8 fewer places for undergraduate degrees. Science areas represented 39.2% of available slots, while Engineering accounted for 17.1%;
- In 2023/2024, 1 664 new students were enrolled in tertiary education institutions in the Region, 111 more students than in the previous academic year (+7.1%). The largest increase was observed in polytechnic institutes (+10.6%; 53 additional students) compared to university institutions (+5.5%; 58 additional students). Of particular note is the increase of 22 new students enrolled in Doctorate 3rd cycle programmes of tertiary education, bringing the total number of new students in this cycle to 32;
- The number of students enrolled in Tertiary Education establishments in the ARM increased by 3.7% (150 more students) between the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 academic years. This increase was higher in university education (+3.9%; 108 more students) compared to polytechnic education (+3.3%; 42 more students). The number of students enrolled in Master's 2nd cycle programmes increased by 23.6% while those enrolled in Doctorate 3rd cycle programmes increased by 26.0%. In contrast, enrolments in Specialisation programmes decreased by 20.0% (7 fewer students in public university education). Higher Professional Technical Courses registered a decrease of 23 students (-4.7%), totalling 465 students enrolled;
- In terms of distribution by education and training areas, Sciences accounted for 31.2% of students enrolled in Tertiary Education in the ARM in 2023/2024, followed by Health and Social Protection (15.5%), Engineering (14.8 %) and Services with (13.7%);
- Enrolled women constituted 54.5% of the total number of enrolments in the 2023/2024 academic year, corresponding to an increase of 1.4 percentage points (pp) compared to the previous academic year. Taking study cycles into account, only in Higher Professional Technical Courses and Doctorate 3rd cycle programmes the proportion of women enrolled was lower than that of men, respectively 29.9% and 46.7%. Among women, the privileged area of education and training was “Health and Social Protection”, representing 23.0% of female enrolments (521). On the other hand, men's preference was for the area "Engineering, Manufacturing Industries and Construction", which accounted for 28.4% of enrolments (538);
- In 2023/2024, the teaching staff in Tertiary Education comprised 459 teachers (401 in the public and 58 in the private), which represents a decrease of 21 teachers compared to the previous academic year (16 fewer in the public and 5 in the private institutes). This reduction was observed exclusively in polytechnic institutes (28 fewer teachers), while university institutions registered an increase of 7 teachers;
- By institutional nature, in 2023/2024 there was a greater proportion of doctorates in public education (50.4%). In private education, the number of Doctorates and Masters was equal (21; 36.2%);
- In the 2023/2024 academic year, the majority of teachers belonged to the Assistant (36.8%) or Assistant Professor (30.7%) categories;
- In the same academic year, 214 non-teaching staff were recorded as working in tertiary education institutions in the ARM (191 in public and 23 in private).
DREM releases the Education Statistics Dashboard
Simultaneously with this release, the DREM website also provides access to the Education Statistics Dashboard for the Autonomous Region of Madeira, developed by the Education Observatory oh the Autonomous Region of Madeira (OERAM) in the final quarter of 2024. This interactive tool for data visualisation and analysis enables users to explore and navigate through various statistics pertaining to non-higher education in the Region.
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