In academic year 2006-07 66,077 students inscribed in the universities of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, which meant a 4% decrease with respect to the previous year, according to data elaborated by Eustat, the Basque Statistics Office. The decrease in population that took place in the late 1980s and in the 1990s was one of the factors that is affecting the amount of inscriptions in universities.

As for territorial distribution, the amount of students that carried out their studies in Bizkaia reached a total of 55% of the total inscriptions, followed by the territory of Gipuzkoa with 31% and, lastly, by Alava with 14%.

Of the total of inscriptions, 54% were women, a similar percentage to that of the previous academic year. With respect to the type of university, 79% of the students were inscribed in public universities.

Evolution of the body of university students in terms of type of studies. Academic year 2006-07

Source: EUSTAT

Four out of every ten students inscribed opted for a university degree

As for the level of studies, 27,801 students decided to inscribe for university degrees, which is 42% of the total. University diplomas took second place with 22%, followed by technical architecture and technical engineering with 18% and, lastly, architecture and engineering with 14%. Women were a majority in university-degree studies (64%) and university-diploma studies (71%), whereas in architecture and engineering and technical architecture and engineering, the presence of men amounted to 66% and 73%, respectively.

In the 2006-07 academic year, 2,386 students carried out postgraduate studies, with men and women having an approximately equal presence.

The most sought-after degrees and diplomas were: Industrial Technical Engineering (6567), Education (5671), Business Administration and Leadership (5161), Business Sciences (4011) and Industrial Engineering (3024). Inscriptions in these five careers represented, during this academic year, 40% of the total. As for women’s choices, the following are noteworthy: Education (4272), Business Administration and Leadership (2956), Psychology (2183), Diploma in Business Sciences (2151) and Law (1631), among the most requested.

Distribution of university students per branches (%). 2006-07 Academic year

Source: EUSTAT

There was a majority presence of women in all branches, except Technical Sciences

In the 2006-07 academic year, 30,737 university students undertook social or law-related studies, which represented 47% of total inscriptions. Secondly, 21,587 students (33%) opted for technical studies, whereas in the field of humanities there was an inscription of 6,234 students (9%); lastly, students who opted for experimental training and health-related studies amounted to 3,690 and 3,827, respectively, each branch representing 6% of the total amount of students.

As for preferences by sex, men were a majority only in technical studies, where 7 out of every 10 students were men. In the rest of the branches women were the majority, amounting to approximately 64%, except in health-related studies were their presence peaked at 81%.

Seven out of every ten students obtained their degree or diploma in a public university

In 2006, 12,667 students obtained their degrees or diplomas, of which, 90% concluded their first and second cycle studies, and the rest, 1.267 students, concluded postgraduate studies. A total of 314 students read their doctoral theses successfully. On the other hand, 59% of those who obtained degrees and diplomas were women.

5,307 teachers worked in the universities of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, of which 36% were women

7,267 people worked in the universities of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country throughout the 2006-07 academic year, which represented 8.7% of the population employed in the services sector. Of these, 5307 were teachers, and 1960 worked in non-teaching staff.