What is the world studying?

A person studying with a pen and book — The number of university students worldwide has more than doubled since 2000. Image: Shutterstock

From humanities degrees booming in Bangladesh to Russia producing the world’s largest number of medical graduates, discover global education trends…

Around the world, an estimated 254 million students are currently enrolled in university education. From degrees in humanities to STEM-based subjects – as well as new and emerging courses like those in artificial intelligence – there is an ever-expanding breadth of knowledge available for students to sink their teeth into.

Globally, university enrolment has been on the rise since the 2000s, when the total number of higher education students sat at around 100 million. So as numbers continue to increase, we ask: what are students from different countries around the world studying? And what subjects are particularly popular in certain nations?

STEM

cell culture at the medicine, medical and cell culture laboratory — More than 40 per cent of all of China’s degrees each year are within STEM subjects. Image: Shutterstock

For STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths – China takes the top place for the number of STEM graduates at more than 3.5 million across all of its university degrees. The next largest is India, with 2.5 million, followed by the United States (900,000), Russia (520,000), Iran (220,000) and Indonesia (216,000).

STEM graduates have also been on the rise in other countries; between 2015 and 2020, Brazil and Mexico saw a 26 per cent and 30 per cent increase in the number of students graduating in STEM fields, respectively.

Business and finance

Nearly one in five university graduates from the US holds a business degree, representing more than 350,000 individuals. But even with such vast numbers, the US doesn’t make it into the top five list of the places with the highest percentage of graduates in business, administration and law.

Luxembourg, with almost 40 per cent of all its graduates holding one of these degrees, is at number one, followed by Malta (34.6 per cent), Morocco (33.7 per cent), the European Union (24.7 per cent), Sweden (15.7 per cent) and Australia (6.0 per cent).

Humanities

Books — In Europe, Sweden and Estonia are also nations with some of the largest proportions of humanities graduates. Image: Shutterstock

The country with the largest percentage of university graduates in humanities and arts is Bangladesh, with 31 per cent of all graduates holding a degree in these subjects. Saudi Arabia (19.44 per cent) and Armenia (19.32 per cent) come in second and third, followed by the United States (5 per cent), Brazil (3.14 per cent) and China (3.08 per cent).

Many countries around the world have reported a decline in humanities studies in recent decades. In the UK, between 1961-62 and 2019-2020, the proportion of students studying humanities degrees dropped from around 28 per cent to just 8 per cent. That trend is not the case for every nation in Europe, though: in Italy, 20 per cent of all graduates specialise in literature, philosophy, history or the arts.

AI and data science

As the AI and data science industries continue to boom, universities are beginning to offer more and more related degree programmes to educate the future global workforce. It’s no wonder, considering projections, that AI and data science jobs are expected to account for almost 20 per cent of new job openings worldwide by 2027.

In the US, data science and AI-related degrees have surged in popularity in the last five years, reporting a more than 300 per cent increase in these degrees.

By far, the US invests the most in AI education with a sizeable $62.5 billion, followed by China ($7.3 billion), Germany ($3.3 billion), India ($1.2 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($500 million).

Medicine

A doctor holding a stethoscope — China is currently investing heavily in its medical education, which is especially important as by 2050, nearly one in four of its population will be over the age of 65. Image: Shutterstock

Out of any nation on the planet, Russia currently produces the highest number of medical graduates annually – a sizeable 600,000. This ranks the country among the world leaders in the doctors-population ratio: 4.2 doctors per 1,000 people, versus an average of 3.6 for OECD countries.

As such, due to the country’s vast oversupply, many Russian doctors work abroad.

Per 100,000 inhabitants of countries around the world, Bulgaria has the highest percentage of medical graduates compared to anywhere else (29.5 per cent), followed by Malta (27.7 per cent) and Latvia (27.5 per cent). Germany (12.4 per cent), Estonia (12.2 per cent) and Slovenia (11.4) also have a high proportion of medical graduates.

Vocational studies

Vocational training or alternative degrees tend to be carried out in a more practical way than traditional university education, incorporating elements such as paid work and hands-on training as methods of learning.

Germany currently has the largest number of students in vocational training. Around 50 per cent of all students choose either apprenticeships or technical training instead of a traditional degree, a dynamic credited with keeping the country’s youth unemployment rates low.

In the country’s state of North Rhine Westphalia, a programme known as Kein Abschluss ohne Anschluss (translated as ‘no graduation without connection’) runs to support students from a young age with resumes and job applications. When they are in ninth grade, students can participate in short internships with local businesses and then enrol on year-long, one-day-a-week work placements the following year.

As of a 2020 study, though, the country with the largest percentage of upper secondary students in vocational programmes is Slovenia, at 70.8 per cent. Other countries with major vocational programme presence include Czechia (70.5 per cent), Finland (60 per cent), Greece (31.9 per cent), Ireland (24.1 per cent) and Cyrpus (16.8 per cent).