68,924 students enrolled in the universities of the A.C. of the Basque Country in the academic year 2005-06, meaning a decrease of 5% in relation to the previous year, according to Eustat data. Although the last five years have seen an upturn in population numbers, the falling rolls in university centres were due to the decrease that took place at the end of the ‘eighties and in the ‘nineties.

As regards distribution by province, the number of students studying in Bizkaia accounted for 55% of the total number of enrolments, followed by the province of Gipuzkoa with 31% and finally, Álava with 14%.

Of the total number of enrolments, 54% were women, a percentage similar to the previous year. As for the type of administration of the centres, 78% of students were enrolled in the public sector.

Evolution of university student numbers by type of studies. 2005-06

Source: EUSTAT

More students opted for degree courses

As for the type of studies, 29,251 students chose to enrol on a degree course, accounting for 44% of the total. These were followed by diploma courses, with 22%, technical architecture and technical engineering with 19% and finally, architecture and engineering with 15%. The majority of students were women when it came to degree courses (65%) and diploma courses (71%), while in architecture and engineering and technical architecture and engineering, the percentage of men was 66% and 73% respectively.

Of the total number of students, 11,709 were newly-enrolled (17%), of which eight out of ten were admitted to university via the access exam.

2,602 students did postgraduate studies in 2005-06, with an evenly balanced proportion of men and women.

The courses most in demand were: Industrial Technical Engineering (6,857), Teaching (5,623), Business Administration and Management (5,476), Diploma in Business Studies (3,966) and Industrial Engineering (3,184). Numbers registered on these five courses represented 40% of enrolments for this academic year. As regards the choice of course among women, Teaching (4,263), Business Administration and Management (3,160), Psychology (2,170), Diploma in Business Studies (2,080) and Law (1,760), stood out as the most popular.

Distribution of University student numbers by branch (%). 2005-06

Source: EUSTAT

46% of university students took courses within the social and legal branch

31,868 university students in the academic year 2005-06 took courses in the social and legal field, representing 46% of the total number of enrolments. Next came the 22,895 students (33%) who chose technical studies, while in the field of humanities there were 6,206 enrolments (9%); finally, 4,128 and 3,827 students respectively opted for experimental training and the area of health, representing, for each branch, 6% of the total number of students.

Turning to the preferences of each sex, there were a greater number of men in technical studies, where 7 out of 10 enrolled in this branch were men. Conversely, the branch with the greatest percentage of women was health, with 80%.

Seven out of ten students obtained their qualification in a public university

In 2005, 12,320 students obtained a university qualification; of these, 92% completed first and second cycle courses and the remainder, 938 students, had done postgraduate courses. A total of 241 students passed their doctorate. Additionally, 60% of those who qualified were women.

97% of young people passed the first sitting of the university access exam

9,755 young people sat the university access exam in the A.C. of the Basque Country in 2006, 7,943 doing so at the first sitting and 1,812 at the resits. At the first sitting 97% of the candidates passed, a figure which fell to 81% at the resits. In addition, 464 students sat the exam for over-25s, of which 284 (61%) passed.

There were 5,194 people teaching at the universities of the A.C. of the Basque Country, of which 64% were men

7,089 people worked at the universities of the A.C. of the Basque Country during the academic year 2005-06. Teaching staff totalled 5,194, of which 36% were women and non-teaching staff accounted for 1,895 people.