One medical place for every 13 applicants

The maths doesn’t add up: there are more students who want to study medicine than places available, women are under-represented in careers such as engineering, and private universities have increased by 2.7 times over the past 25 years. These are some of the conclusions drawn from the latest CYD report, a reference study on universities in Spain. In its first chapter, the document analyzes the profile of students enrolled at university and the adequacy of study between supply and demand, reflecting the growth of private universities, which have almost tripled their presence over the past 25 years, and There is a definite mismatch. Between the study offer of universities and the needs of the labor market.

In the 2022–2023 academic year, 90.8% of places offered in the first year of a degree at face-to-face public universities were filled by newly enrolled students through pre-registration, although there are differences depending on the major: Health and Education. There are more than 95% of places in the fields and in Business, Administration and Law, Social Sciences, Journalism and Documentation and Science, there are about 93% of places. By subfields, full employment predominates in psychology, veterinary medicine, sports, nursing and medicine.

At the other end, the services sector tourism and hospitality had the lowest occupancy rate (55%), followed by the primary sector (73%).

Regarding the choice of students to pre-register for degree studies at public universities, it should be noted that the highest priority rates are in Medicine (where there are more than 13 applications per place), Veterinary Sciences (8.5 per place ), Nursing (4.6 per place), as well as Psychology and Sports (3.3 demand per place). In the sciences, mathematics and statistics predominate (2.7 per place), while the ratio is around 2 per place in the life sciences and physical, chemical and geological sciences, and 1.8 in computing. At the bottom of the list, Languages, Engineering and Humanities have less than 1.2 demands per place and Tourism and Hospitality and Primary Sector have less than one demand per place.

Another finding of the report is that private universities are continuously growing and host 46.1% of master’s students and 19.1% of undergraduate students.

In fact, the number of students enrolled in university degree studies in the 2021-2022 academic year was 1,333,567, a slight decrease (-0.2%) from the previous year. Enrollments in public universities decreased (-1.8%) while private universities increased (7.5%).

Over the past decade, compared to the 2011–2012 academic year, the number of students enrolled in graduate studies has decreased (-8.5%), but an unequal trend depending on the ownership of the university: while the public has more than 200,000 students. The private sector has grown by approximately 81,000 students, now accounting for 19.1% of enrollment.

The addition of students to Master’s studies continues: in the 2021-2022 academic year, 266,902 students took this training, 53.9% in the public university and 46.1% in the private university; The latter has increased by 14.4% compared to the previous year.