6 out of 10 graduates are women

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For all graduation levels, there were more women than men who graduated in the academic year 2015/16. The difference was greatest at undergraduate level, where 63 per cent of the graduates were women.

During the academic year 2015/16, almost 46 700 graduations were completed in higher education – about 31 600 graduations from undergraduate level, 13 700 from graduate level and 1 370 doctorates.

Compared to the previous year, there was a decline in the number of graduations at doctoral level in 2015/16. The decline was due to 45 fewer women completing their doctorates in 2015/16, which led to an almost zero gender disparity.

The proportion of graduations at universities increased by approximately 10 percentage points from 2014/15 to 2015/16, and in the same period the number of graduations from state university colleges decreased by about the same amount.

 

One important factor in this is the merger to larger higher educational institutions and universities.

Among the ordinary students, the average number of credits attained was highest for students aged 20-24, with nearly 54 credits per student. Almost 58 per cent of the students belong to this age group, and hence the group is by far the largest age group among the ordinary students.

Figure 1. Graduates from doctoral studies in Norway. 1999/2000-2015/16. Sex

1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016
Men 440 504 468 428 455 506 525 566 679 588 664 702 731 808 730 676 682
Women 219 264 272 286 301 332 357 414 552 496 538 596 677 741 712 731 686

Figure 2. Credits per student, ordinary students. Age

2015-2016
Years, total 51.9
-20 years 51
20-24 years 53.9
25-29 years 51.4
30-34 years 47.9
35-39 years 45.6
40-44 years 43.9
45-49 years 41.4
50 years or older 39.3

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