Science and Technology Highest proportion of graduates in Science & Engineering in Sweden, Ireland and France
In Slovakia, Lithuania and Czech Republic among Acceding Countries
In the EU in 2001 there were almost 2 million new graduates from tertiary education1, that is on average 40 new graduates per 1000 population aged 20-29 years old. In the Acceding Countries2, there were 630 000 new graduates or 55 per 1000 population aged 20-29 years old. Of new tertiary graduates, 26% were in a science and/or engineering3 field in the EU, compared to 13% in the Acceding Countries.

With more than 30% of total graduates in tertiary education in science or engineering, Sweden, Ireland and France recorded the highest values among Member States. Slovakia, Lithuania (both 26%) and the Czech Republic (23%) did so for Acceding Countries.
This information comes from a report4 published today by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

Engineering more popular than science in both the EU and Acceding Countries
Of the new graduates from tertiary education in the EU in 2001 11% were in science and 15% in engineering, manufacturing and construction, compared with 4% and 9% respectively in the Acceding Countries. All Member States, except Ireland and the United Kingdom, and all the Acceding Countries show higher percentages of graduates for engineering than for science.

Ireland and France recorded the highest percentages of graduates in science with 20% and 15% of total graduates respectively while the lowest were registered in Portugal and the Netherlands (both 5%). With regard to engineering, highest values were observed in Sweden, Austria and Finland with 20% or more of total graduates in this field, compared to around 10% in the United Kingdom and Belgium.

Among the Acceding Countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia recorded the highest proportion of science graduates, with 11% and 9% respectively, and Hungary (2%) and Malta (4%) the lowest. In engineering, Lithuania had the highest percentage of graduates with 21%, followed by Slovakia and Slovenia (17% each). Meanwhile, Malta and Cyprus recorded the lowest values, with 5% and 6% respectively.

Under-representation of women in Science and Engineering graduates
The proportion of women in total tertiary education graduates is higher than for men in the EU and the Acceding Countries, but it is the opposite in science and engineering, where the majority of graduates are men. The only exceptions concerned graduates in science in Portugal, Italy, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, where the proportion of women in 2001 varied between 52% and 59%.

All Member States and Acceding Countries, except the Czech Republic, showed a lower proportion of women graduating in engineering than in science. The highest proportions of women graduates in engineering were observed in Portugal, Lithuania, Slovakia and Latvia and ranged from 30% to 35%.

The proportion of women graduates in total graduates is higher on average in the Acceding Countries than in the EU for both science (48% compared to 41%) and engineering (26% and 21%).

Tertiary education covers, programmes that are largely theoretically based and are intended to provide sufficient qualifications for gaining entry into advanced research programmes and professions with high skill requirements (ISCED level 5A), programmes that are generally more practical/technical/occupationally specific than ISCED 5A programmes (ISCED level 5B), and tertiary programmes that lead to the award of an advance research qualification (ISCED level 6). ISCED stands for International Standard Classification of Education, 1997.

Acceding Countries (ACC) are: Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. Candidate Countries are the 10 ACC plus Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.

Science and Engineering fields of study are: Life sciences, Physical sciences, mathematics and statistics, Computing, Engineering and engineering trades, manufacturing and processing, Architecture and building.

Eurostat 'Statistics in focus' Science and Technology, Theme 9, 9/2003: 'Catching up with the EU? Comparing highly qualified human resources in the EU and the Acceding Countries'.

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