Romania in 2012 college degree

Romania is one of the EU member states with the smallest differences between the share of men and women that have a degree (20.5 percent and 23.2 percent in 2012), albeit the overall share of tertiary education graduates is below the EU average, according to data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Romania is also listed as one of the member states with the smallest differences between women and men for early leavers from education and training and with the largest share of female graduates in science & mathematics (60.7 percent).

Overall, Eurostat data reveal that a higher proportion of young women than men have a degree in the EU. According to 2012 data, 49.9 percent of women aged 30 to 34 in the EU 28 had completed a tertiary level of education, compared with 31.5 percent of men. The largest differences in the rates between women and men were observed in Estonia (50.4 percent for women and 28.1 percent for men), Latvia (48.1 percent and 26.2 percent), Slovenia (49.6 percent and 29.5 percent) and Denmark (52.6 percent and 33.7 percent), and the smallest in Austria (26.6 percent and 26.0 percent), Luxembourg (48.9 percent and 50.4 percent), Germany (32.9 percent and 31.0 percent) and Romania (23.2 percent and 20.5 percent).

Data also show that there was a smaller proportion of early leavers from education and training among women (10.9 percent) than among men (14.4 percent) in the EU28 in 2012. While the extent of leaving school early differs considerably between Member States, this gender pattern was the same for all except Bulgaria. The largest differences between women and men for early leavers from education and training were observed in Portugal (14.3 percent for women and 27.1 percent for men), Malta (17.6 percent and 27.5 percent), Cyprus (7.0 percent and 16.5 percent), Latvia (6.3 percent and 14.7 percent) and Spain (20.8 percent and 28.8 percent), and the smallest in Austria (7.3 percent and 7.9 percent), Bulgaria (13.0 percent and 12.1 percent), Croatia (3.6 percent and 4.6 percent), the Czech Republic (4.9 percent and 6.1 percent) and Romania (16.7 percent and 18.0 percent).

Almost 80 percent of graduates in education in the EU28 are women, compared with 27 percent for engineering

The fields of study chosen within tertiary education vary greatly between women and men, according to Eurostat. In the EU28 in 2011, 79.1 percent of tertiary education graduates in education & training and 76.0 percent of graduates in health & welfare were women. However, only 26.6 percent of graduates in engineering and 40.8 percent in science & mathematics were female. The share of female graduates in the different fields varied significantly between Member States, ranging from 74.4 percent in Denmark to 95.1 percent in Romania for education & training, from 59.7 percent in Cyprus to 93.7 percent in Latvia for health & welfare, from 25.2 percent in the Netherlands to 60.7 percent in Romania for science & mathematics and from 16.9 percent in Ireland to 50.4 percent in Cyprus for engineering.

Simona Bazavan