Tertiary education statistics

Data extracted in June 2025.

Planned article update: June 2026.

Highlights

In the EU there were 18.8 million tertiary education students in 2023, of which 59% were studying for bachelor’s degrees.

In 2023, 22% of tertiary education students in the EU were studying business, administration or law.

Within the EU, 58% of all tertiary education graduates in 2023 were women. In all EU countries, more women graduated from tertiary education than men.

In 2023, the most frequently awarded degrees in the EU were in the field of business, administration and law.

Tertiary education graduates in science, mathematics, computing, engineering, manufacturing and construction (STEM), 2023

This article presents statistics on tertiary education (levels 5 to 8 of the International Standard Classification of Education – ISCED) in the European Union (EU) and forms part of an online publication on education and training in the EU.

Tertiary education – provided by universities and other tertiary educational institutions – typically follows secondary schooling. It is considered to play an essential role in society, by fostering innovation, driving economic development and growth, and more generally improving the well-being of the population. Some European universities are among the most prestigious in the world.

Many commentators predict increased demand for highly skilled people in the future. Driven by digital technology, jobs are becoming more flexible and complex. As a result, a growing number of employers seek staff with the necessary capacities to manage complex information, think autonomously, be creative, use resources efficiently and communicate effectively.

A relatively large number of students in tertiary education are internationally mobile and study abroad: an analysis of this phenomenon is available in a separate article.

Participation by level

Table 1: Number of tertiary education students by sex and level of education, 2023
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_enrt01)

Table 1 presents data on the number of students in each of 4 levels of tertiary education. Bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels of tertiary education are found in all EU countries, while short-cycle tertiary education, which is typically vocational (occupationally specific) and designed to prepare students for the labour market, is not part of the education system in Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Romania or Finland. Short-cycle tertiary education is also quite uncommon – accounting for less than 1.0% of the total number of tertiary students – in several other EU countries, namely Czechia, Germany, Croatia, Lithuania and Poland.

In the EU, there were 18.8 million tertiary education students in 2023 (see Table 1). Germany – the most populous country in the EU – had 3.3 million tertiary education students, which was the highest number in the EU and equivalent to 17.7% of the EU total. France (15.2% of the total), Spain (12.6%) and Italy (11.8%) had the next largest shares of the EU’s tertiary student population.

Among the 18.8 million tertiary education students in the EU

7.5% were following short-cycle tertiary courses
59.3% were studying for bachelor’s degrees
29.3% were studying for master’s degrees
3.8% were studying for doctoral degrees.

Students of bachelor’s and master’s degrees accounted for 88.7% of the total number of tertiary students in the EU in 2023. The highest shares for these 2 levels of education were reported for Poland (98.2%), Lithuania (97.4%), Czechia (97.0%), Croatia (97.0%), Italy (96.6%), Greece (96.3%) and Romania (95.9%). Notably lower shares were recorded for Austria (78.7%), Latvia (78.5%), Luxembourg (76.8%) and Spain (71.2%).

Short-cycle tertiary courses were most common in Spain where they accounted for 24.7% of all tertiary students; they were also relatively common in Latvia, France and Austria.

Luxembourg, Austria, Cyprus and France were the only EU countries where fewer than 50% of all tertiary students were studying for bachelor’s degrees. Among EU countries, the highest share of tertiary students who were studying for bachelor’s degrees was 84.1% in Greece.

Greece had the lowest share of tertiary students studying for master’s degrees in 2023, around an eighth (12.1%) of all tertiary students. This share was also below 20.0% in Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands. By contrast, the highest shares were recorded in Croatia (40.7%) and Cyprus (46.5%).

Germany had a relatively high share of tertiary students studying for doctoral degrees in 2023 (6.2% compared with the EU average of 3.8%). In line with the fact that Germany had the highest total number of tertiary students among the EU countries, it also had, by far, the highest number of students studying for doctoral degrees (205 300) – see Table 1. This was more than twice the number of students studying for a doctoral degree in any of the other EU countries; the next highest counts were recorded in Spain (97 200) and France (69 600). Although France had the 2nd highest total number of tertiary students among the EU countries, at 2.4% the share of students studying for doctoral degrees in France was the 3rd lowest among the EU countries. By far, the highest share of tertiary students studying for doctoral degrees in 2023 among the EU countries was recorded in Luxembourg (12.7%), with the next highest shares in Germany (6.2%) and Czechia (6.1%). The lowest shares of doctoral students in the total number of tertiary education students were observed in Italy (1.9%) and Poland (1.7%).

Participation in tertiary education by sex

In 2023, women accounted for 54.8% of all tertiary students in the EU. The share of women among tertiary students was

49.5% for those following short-cycle tertiary courses
54.1% for those studying for bachelor’s degrees
58.3% for those studying for master’s degrees
49.4% for those studying for doctoral degrees.

As such, the majority of short-cycle tertiary and doctoral students were male, while the majority of bachelor’s and master’s students were female.

In 2023, 60.5% of all tertiary students in Sweden were female, while the share was close to this level in Estonia (59.6%) and Poland (59.5%). Women were also in a majority among tertiary students in all of the other EU countries except for Greece (49.7% were female).

For short-cycle courses, half of the 22 EU countries in which such courses exist had more female than male students in 2023.
For bachelor’s degrees, Greece, Germany and Cyprus were the only EU countries where there were more men than women studying at this educational level in 2023. The highest share of female students among those studying for bachelor’s degrees was recorded in Sweden (64.3%).
Among students studying for master’s degrees, women were in the majority in 2023 in all of the EU countries. The highest female share was recorded in Cyprus, where women accounted for more than two thirds (69.4%) of the total number of students, as was also the case in Poland (67.9%).
Women were in a majority among doctoral level students in 16 of the EU countries, despite the fact that men made up a majority (50.6%) of doctoral students in the EU as a whole. The highest share for women was in Latvia (61.0%), while the highest share for men was in Luxembourg (57.0%).

Participation in tertiary education by field of education

Figure 1: Distribution of tertiary education students by broad field and sex, EU, 2023
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_enrt03)

Across the EU, more than a fifth (22.0%) of all students in tertiary education in 2023 were studying business, administration or law. Women accounted for a majority of the total number of students within this field of education – see Figure 1. The 2nd most common field of education was engineering, manufacturing and construction which accounted for 14.7% of all tertiary education students. In this field, almost three quarters (72.3%) of all students were male; some 23.5% of all male tertiary education students were studying engineering, manufacturing or construction. The 3rd largest field of study was health and welfare, with a 14.4% share of all tertiary education students. Women accounted for a large majority (72.4%) of the total number of tertiary students in this field. The only other field of study to account for a double-digit share of tertiary education students was arts and humanities (11.2%), where women also accounted for a relatively large majority (65.0%) of the total number of tertiary students in this field.

Among the remaining fields of study shown in Figure 1, there was a particularly high share of female students among those studying education (78.9%), while there was a relatively high share of female students among those studying social sciences, journalism and information (66.1%). By contrast, there was a relatively high share (79.7%) of men studying information and communication technologies.

Participation in tertiary education by type of institution

Figure 2: Distribution of students in tertiary education by type of institution, 2023
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_enrt01)

In the EU, the vast majority (73.5%) of tertiary education students in 2023 were taught in public institutions ^[1] – see Figure 2.

In 2023, all tertiary education students were studying in public institutions in Greece and Luxembourg; in a further 20 EU countries, a majority of tertiary education students were studying in public institutions.
In 5 EU countries, a minority of tertiary education students were studying in public institutions in 2023
- in Belgium, the share was 41.6%, with students in private institutions almost exclusively in government-dependent private institutions
- in the Netherlands, the share was 30.1%, with students in private institutions predominantly in government-dependent private institutions, although independent private institutions did account for more than a tenth of all tertiary students
- in Cyprus, the share was 25.9%, with students in private institutions exclusively in independent private institutions
- in Hungary, the share was 22.5%, with students in private institutions predominantly in independent private institutions
- in Latvia, the share was 6.5%, with students in private institutions mainly in government-dependent private institutions, although independent private institutions did account for more than a fifth of all tertiary students.

Graduates

Figure 3: Ratio of women to men among tertiary education graduates, 2023
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_grad09)

In 2023, some 4.4 million students graduated from tertiary education in the EU. France (872 900) had the largest number of tertiary graduates, some way ahead of Germany (629 900), Spain (562 100) and Italy (511 200); all of the remaining EU countries had fewer than half a million tertiary graduates. The relatively high number of graduates in France may, at least to some extent, reflect a shorter average course length.

As noted above, the majority of short-cycle tertiary students and doctoral students in 2023 in the EU were men, while the majority of bachelor’s and master’s students were women. This gender difference among tertiary students is reflected, to some extent, in the data for tertiary graduates.

Despite men being in the majority among the short-cycle tertiary student population, there were slightly more women than men graduating, with a ratio across the EU of 104 women for every 100 men.
The ratio of women to men among graduates was highest for graduates of bachelor’s and master’s levels: there were 144 women who were graduates from master’s or equivalent courses for every 100 men; for bachelor’s or equivalent courses the ratio was very similar, at 143 women for every 100 men.
The majority of doctoral or equivalent students were men and this was reinforced in terms of the number of graduates. There were 93 women among doctoral or equivalent graduates for every 100 men.

Among the EU countries, the highest ratios of women to men among tertiary graduates in 2023 were observed in Latvia (197 women for every 100 men), Poland (189 women for every 100 men) and Estonia (181 women for every 100 men). In all EU countries, there were more women who graduated from tertiary education than men. The lowest female-to-male ratio was in Germany (105 women for every 100 men) – although women were only in the majority among graduates of master’s or equivalent courses.

Table 2: Distribution of tertiary education graduates by broad field of education, 2023
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_grad02)

In 2023, an analysis of the number of graduates in the EU by field of education shows that approximately a quarter (25.3%) of all tertiary students had graduated in business, administration or law. The next 2 largest fields were health and welfare (14.5%) and engineering, manufacturing and construction (14.1%), followed by arts and humanities, and social sciences, journalism and information, both of which had shares of 9.6%.

For several fields of education, there was a remarkable variability in the distribution of tertiary graduates in 2023 across the EU countries.

The proportion of graduates in business, administration and law ranged from 15.6% in Sweden to 41.5% in Luxembourg.
For engineering, manufacturing and construction studies, the share of all graduates was below 10.0% in 5 EU countries, with Malta recording the lowest share (5.5%). By contrast, Austria (19.3%) and Germany (22.0%) reported the highest shares.
A similar situation was observed for graduates in health and welfare. The share of all graduates was below 10.0% in 4 EU countries, with Luxembourg recording the lowest share (5.9%). By contrast, Sweden (20.4%), Denmark (20.7%), Lithuania, Finland (both 21.4%), Malta (23.2%) and Belgium (26.1%) reported shares of more than a fifth.
The share of tertiary graduates from the education field was below 5.0% in France (4.2%) and Portugal (4.4%), while the highest share was recorded for Cyprus (24.6%).
Larger gaps (in relative terms) between the highest and lowest shares were observed for some of the smaller fields, most notably for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary where the 3.9% share in Romania was 16 times as high as the 0.2% share in Malta.

Figure 4: Distribution of tertiary education graduates by broad field and sex, EU, 2023
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_grad02)

Figure 4 extends the analysis of Table 2 by presenting not only an analysis by broad field of education, but also by the sex of the graduates. The distribution of tertiary education graduates by sex and field of study as shown in Figure 4 reflects the distribution of participation numbers in tertiary education as shown in Figure 1.

Within the EU, 57.8% of all tertiary education graduates in 2023 were women.

Some 14.7% of all tertiary graduates were women graduating from business, administration and law, while 10.6% were men from the same field.
Around a tenth of all tertiary graduates were women graduating from health and welfare (10.9%), while a similar share were men graduating from engineering, manufacturing and construction (10.1%).
There were more women than men among graduates from all fields except for i) engineering, manufacturing and construction, ii) information and communication technologies and iii) services.
Women outnumbered men among graduates from all fields where they also outnumbered men among students.
With the exception of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary, men outnumbered women among graduates from all fields where they also outnumbered women among students.

The analysis by sex of students and graduates from different fields varied most for generic programmes and qualifications – compare Figure 1 and Figure 4. In this field, there were 1.7 times as many female as male students, but 2.1 times as many female as male graduates. In nearly all fields, the ratio of women to men was higher among graduates than among students: the only exception was the category for unknown fields.

Figure 5: Number of tertiary education graduates in each detailed field of education, EU, 2023
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_grad02)

A more detailed analysis of field of study is presented in Figure 5, which shows the number of graduates with a bachelor’s or a master’s degree. While many subjects are offered at both bachelor’s and master’s levels, it is important to note that courses in some fields, for example medicine and law, may be offered in some EU countries principally or exclusively as master’s courses. In these cases, the number of graduates at the bachelor’s level may be small or even zero.

In 2023, the most frequently awarded degree – based on detailed fields of education – was for management and administration; across the EU, some 222 000 people in this field graduated with a bachelor’s degree and 143 500 with a master’s degree. Nursing and midwifery was the 2nd most common field for those graduating with a bachelor’s degree (103 700), followed by law (94 600). By contrast, medicine was the 2nd most frequently awarded degree among those graduating with a master’s degree (129 100), followed by law (105 300).

Figure 6: Tertiary education graduates in science, mathematics, computing, engineering, manufacturing and construction, 2023
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_grad04)

Relative to the size of the population aged 20 to 29 years, the number of tertiary graduates in science, mathematics, computing, engineering, manufacturing and construction (referred to hereafter as STEM) in the EU increased in recent years. In 2014, the ratio was 18.5 per 1 000 people aged 20 to 29 years while in 2023 it was 22.4 per 1 000.

Figure 6 shows this ratio for male and female graduates in 2023. There were almost twice as many male as female STEM graduates in the EU: 29.0 men per 1 000 male inhabitants aged 20 to 29 years and 15.5 women per 1 000 female inhabitants aged 20 to 29 years. In relative terms, the gender gap for this field of education was most marked in Spain and Hungary, where the ratios for male graduates were 2.6 and 2.5 times, respectively, as high as the ratios for female graduates. The narrowest gender gaps for this indicator were observed in Romania and Greece (both 2022 data), where the ratios for male graduates were 1.3 times as high as the ratios for female graduates.

Teaching staff

Figure 7: Teaching staff in tertiary education by sex and level of education, 2023
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_perp01)

There were 1.53 million people teaching in tertiary education across the EU in 2023. Close to a third (31.5%) of the tertiary education teaching staff in the EU were teaching in Germany, with more than a tenth in Spain (12.7%).

In contrast to the teaching staff in schools, where women were in the majority, in 2023 a higher proportion of tertiary education teaching staff in the EU were men (52.0%). Note that the countries in Figure 7 are ranked on the share of women among the teaching staff for the whole of tertiary education.

The share of men among tertiary education teaching staff exceeded 60.0% in Luxembourg, Greece, Czechia, Malta and Italy.
Women accounted for a majority of the tertiary education teaching staff in Belgium, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Finland and Latvia, with their share peaking at 57.8% in Lithuania.

Figure 7 provides information on the relative shares of men and women within tertiary education teaching staff in 2023. An analysis by level of education provides data for short-cycle tertiary education separate from the rest of tertiary education.

For the EU, the share of women within the teaching staff was higher for short-cycle tertiary education (52.0%) than for the rest of tertiary education (44.2%).
A particularly high share of women within the teaching staff for short-cycle tertiary education was observed in Belgium (83.7%).
Among the 16 EU countries for which the analysis by level of education is available (see Figure 7), Germany, Cyprus, Sweden and Denmark were the only ones where the share of women within the teaching staff for short-cycle tertiary education was lower than the equivalent share for the rest of tertiary education.

Source data for tables and graphs

Tertiary education statistics: tables and figures

Data sources

Source

The standards for international statistics on education are set by 3 international organisations

the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) institute for statistics (UIS)
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU.

The source of data used in this article is a joint UNESCO/OECD/Eurostat (UOE) data collection on education statistics, and this is the basis for the core components of Eurostat’s database on education statistics. In combination with the joint data collection, Eurostat also collects data on regional enrolments, foreign language learning and tertiary graduates with credit mobility.

More information about the joint data collection is available in an article on the UOE methodology.

Classification

The international standard classification of education (ISCED) is the basis for international education statistics, describing 9 different levels of education.

Eurostat data by fields of education are classified according to the ISCED-F 2013 classification. The fields of education – as classified by ISCED-F 2013 – are broad domains, branches or areas of content covered by an education programme or qualification. The classification has a 3-level hierarchy based on broad fields (the highest level), narrow fields (the 2nd level) and detailed fields (the 3rd level) of education.

Symbols

In tables, a colon ‘:’ is used to show where data aren’t available and a dash ‘–’ when data are not relevant or not applicable; data in italics are estimates or provisional.

Context

Tertiary education builds on secondary education, providing learning activities in specialised fields of education. Tertiary education includes not only what is commonly understood as ‘academic’ education, but also includes advanced vocational or professional education. The content of programmes at tertiary level is more complex and advanced than at lower ISCED levels. A prerequisite of tertiary education is the successful completion of ISCED level 3 programmes that give direct access to 1st stage tertiary education programmes (access may also be possible from ISCED level 4 programmes). In addition to qualification requirements, entry into education programmes at these levels may depend on subject choice and/or grades achieved. Furthermore, it may be necessary to take and succeed in entrance examinations.

There is usually a clear hierarchy between qualifications granted by tertiary education programmes. The transition between programmes at tertiary level is, however, not always clearly distinguished and it may be possible to combine programmes and transfer credits from 1 programme to another. In certain cases, credits received from previously completed education programmes may also be counted towards the completion of a programme at a higher ISCED level. Nevertheless, the successful completion of a master’s or equivalent level programme (ISCED level 7) is usually required for entry into a doctoral or equivalent level programme (ISCED level 8).

Bologna process and the renewed agenda for higher education

Since the introduction of the Bologna process (see the article on Education and training statistics introduced), a major expansion in higher education systems ^[2] has taken place, accompanied by significant reforms in degree structures and quality assurance systems.

While the Bologna process put in motion a series of reforms to make European higher education more compatible, comparable, competitive and attractive for students, it is only a part of a broader effort concerning higher education. To establish synergies between the Bologna process and the Copenhagen process (for enhanced European cooperation in vocational education and training), the European Commission and EU countries have established a European qualifications framework for lifelong learning (EQF).

In May 2017, the European Commission adopted a Communication on a renewed EU agenda for higher education (COM(2017) 247 final), focusing on 4 priority activities

tackling future skills mismatches and promoting excellence in skills development
building inclusive and connected higher education systems
ensuring higher education institutions contribute to innovation
supporting effective and efficient higher education systems.

More information on the communication as well as on other higher education initiatives is available in the article on Education and training statistics introduced.

In January 2022, the European Commission adopted a Communication on a European strategy for universities (COM(2022) 16 final), highlighting the unique position of universities at the crossroads of education, research, innovation, serving society and the economy.

European Education Area

A Council Resolution on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond, was adopted by the Council in February 2021. For monitoring progress, 7 EU-wide targets have been introduced. They define benchmarks against which performance across education and training may be judged and refer to levels of average performance across the EU. These include

the share of people aged 25 to 34 years with tertiary educational attainment should be at least 45%, by 2030
at least 47% of people aged 25 to 64 years should have participated in adult learning during the previous 12 months, by 2025.

More information on the European Education Area is available in the article on Education and training statistics introduced.

Erasmus+

In 2014, the Erasmus programme was superseded by the EU’s programme for education, training, young people and sport, referred to as ‘Erasmus+’. The programme currently covers the period 2021 to 2027 and has an overall budget of €26.2 billion. This is nearly double the funding compared with its predecessor programme (2014 to 2020).

Footnotes

According to the UOE classification, the distinction between public and private is made according to whether a public agency or a private entity has the overall control of the institution and not according to which sector provides the majority of the funding. If a private institution receives the majority of funding from a public agency it is considered to be dependent; if not, it is independent. ↑
In UOE statistics, the term ‘tertiary education’ is used, and this refers to ISCED levels 5 to 8. The term ‘higher education’ isn’t used in UOE statistics and doesn’t have a comparable international definition in terms of indicating a specific grouping of ISCED levels. A number of countries don’t consider institutions delivering ISCED level 5 programmes to be part of what is nationally defined as ‘higher education’. ↑

Explore further

Database

Education and training (educ), see

Participation in education and training (educ_part)

Education personnel (educ_uoe_per)

Education and training outcomes (educ_outc)

Thematic section

Education and training

Selected datasets

Education and training (t_educ)

Methodology

Metadata

Pupils and students – enrolments (ESMS metadata file – educ_uoe_enr_esms)

Manuals and other methodological information

External links

Legislation

Regulation (EC) No 452/2008 of 23 April 2008 concerning the production and development of statistics on education and lifelong learning
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 912/2013 of 23 September 2013 as regards statistics on education and training systems
- Summaries of EU Legislation: statistics on education and lifelong learning

[1] According to the UOE classification, the distinction between public and private is made according to whether a public agency or a private entity has the overall control of the institution and not according to which sector provides the majority of the funding. If a private institution receives the majority of funding from a public agency it is considered to be dependent; if not, it is independent. ↑

[2] In UOE statistics, the term ‘tertiary education’ is used, and this refers to ISCED levels 5 to 8. The term ‘higher education’ isn’t used in UOE statistics and doesn’t have a comparable international definition in terms of indicating a specific grouping of ISCED levels. A number of countries don’t consider institutions delivering ISCED level 5 programmes to be part of what is nationally defined as ‘higher education’. ↑

[1]

[2]