Andorra la VellaDuring the 2023/2024 academic year, there were a total of 14,406 students in the country’s schools. This means an increase of 2.7% compared to the previous year and 23.6% in relation to the 2019/2020 academic year, as the Department of Statistics announced this Thursday.
Among the educational levels that show positive relative variations compared to the previous year, the master’s degree stands out with 16.5% and the short-cycle higher education with 13.3%. With negative variations, professional training stands out with 3.6% and the doctorate with 3.1%. Regarding the variations compared to four academic years ago, the most prominent increase occurs in the students of the bachelor’s degree with 413.3% and the biggest reduction occurs in the kindergarten students (9%).
If the educational levels are classified into large groups, the students of pre-higher education and professional training have been 11,391 in the academic year 2023/2024, which represents an increase of 0.6% compared to the previous year, which continues the positive trend started last year. In addition, in the 2023/2024 academic year, there were 3,015 higher education students, 11.6% more than in the previous academic year. The annual variation of the last five courses is positive.
Fewer scholarships awarded
During the 2023/2024 academic year, a total of 4,538 study grants have been awarded. This means a reduction of two scholarships compared to the previous year and a reduction of 10.3% when compared to the figures for the 2019/2020 academic year. The educational level with the largest number of grants awarded was primary education with a total of 1,738 grants. It should be borne in mind that this figure takes into account subsidies for the rental of ski equipment. The educational level that received the least number of scholarships during the year was second-cycle university students with a total of 83.
Regarding the annual variations, professional training is the educational level in which more scholarships have been awarded compared to the previous year in relative terms with an increase of 81.5%. On the other hand, second-cycle university students are the level that has seen the biggest decrease in the number of scholarships compared to last year, by 21.7%. If you compare the 2023/2024 academic year with 2019/2020, the number of scholarships has decreased at all levels and non-higher professional training is the one with the largest percentage difference with 39.7% (116 scholarships less) .
If the educational levels are grouped together, 3,699 scholarships have been allocated to pre-higher education and professional training students, which represents an increase of 0.3% compared to the previous academic year. The annual variation in three of the last five years is negative. During the 2023/2024 academic year, there were 839 scholarships allocated to higher education, 1.4% less than the previous year. With respect to the 2019/2020 academic year, the variation is negative, of 10.9%. The variation for the 2019/2020 and 2021/2022 academic years is positive.
Amounts awarded in scholarships
Throughout the 2023/2024 academic year, a total of 2,663,510.12 euros in scholarships have been awarded for study. This figure is 4.6% lower than the amount awarded in the previous academic year. On the other hand, it is 1.7% higher than the 2019/2020 academic year. The level of studies that received the highest amount was first-cycle university students with a total of 1,023,240.24 euros, while the lowest amount was for non-higher professional training with 68,320.06 euros.
Regarding the annual variations, professional training is the educational level that has had the greatest relative increase in the amount of scholarships with 98.1%. The biggest reduction in the amount is found in second cycle university students with 18.7%. Compared to four years ago, high school has seen the amount of scholarships increased by 30%, while non-higher vocational education has seen it reduced by 26.4%.
Classifying the educational levels in large groups, 1,405,876.15 euros have been allocated to scholarships for higher education and professional training, an increase of 4.6% compared to the previous academic year. The annual variation is positive in the last three years. The amount allocated to higher education was 1,257,633.97 euros, 13.1% less than in the previous academic year, and breaks the positive trend recorded in the last four years.
Public expenditure on education by educational level
The Government’s public expenditure on education for the 2023/2024 academic year was 119,565,203.60 euros. This figure is 7.1% higher than that of the previous year and 5.9% higher than that of the 2019/2020 academic year. The educational level that has received a greater amount has been primary education with a total of 32.9 million euros, 2.7% and 4.7% higher than that of the previous academic year and that of the 2019/2020 academic year , respectively. On the other hand, the educational level that received the lowest amount was vocational training with 5.1 million euros, a figure that increases by 8.7% compared to the previous year and by 5, 3% compared to four years ago.
Population by level of education
In 2023, of the total population of Andorra, 48.1% declared to have attained a qualification lower than that of studies equivalent to secondary education, while the remaining 51.9% declared to have passed this level of training, according to the data processed by the Statistics department that have been obtained through the Family Budgets survey.
23.4% of the total population, in 2023, had obtained a higher education degree. Compared to the previous year (2022), the population has increased its level of education, mainly motivated by the growth of 4.5 percentage points (pp) in the proportion of the population with first and second cycle tertiary studies. On the contrary, the proportion of the population that declared they had no education is reduced by 0.3 pp. Another useful indicator for assessing the educational level of the population is the percentage of the population between the ages of 30 and 34 with completed higher education. For the year 2023, the value is 48.1%.
Vocational training and higher education students by educational field
In the 2023/2024 academic year, there were a total of 515 people enrolled in vocational training, 3.4% less compared to the previous academic year. If we compare the data with the 2019/2020 school year, the variation is positive, specifically of 2.4%. The Andorran system is by far the one with the most students enrolled (227), followed by the French system (203). In this period there are 85 students enrolled in the Spanish vocational training system.
Within the Andorran system, the specialty with the most students enrolled has been that of physical sports and leisure activities, with 34.8% of the total number of students enrolled in this system, followed by health and social with 27.8 %. The specialties with the fewest students enrolled in the country’s system were, on the one hand, socio-educational animation and aesthetics, cosmetics and perfumery, which did not have any students enrolled this last academic year, and, on the other, computer systems and networks with 25 students enrolled.
Regarding the annual variations, the specialty of the Andorran system that has experienced a greater increase in enrollments has been computer systems and networks with 177.8% (16 more students) compared to the previous academic year. On the contrary, the specializations of microcomputers and networks and multilingual secretarial with 41.2% and 11.8%, respectively, are the ones that have seen the biggest decrease in enrollment compared to the previous year.
In relation to the 2019/2020 academic year, the only specialties that have increased the number of enrolled students are computer systems and networks with 108.3%, followed by healthcare and social studies with 50%. Conversely, microcomputers and networks with 45.5% and multilingual secretarial, with 21.1% are the specialties with enrolled students that stand out with negative variations.
Finally, in the last academic year, the educational field of higher education with a greater number of enrolled students was business administration and law with 774 students (out of a total of 3,015 enrolled); this figure is 16.4% higher than the previous year and 136.7% compared to the 2019/2020 academic year. On the other hand, the educational field with the fewest enrolled students, without taking into account those who have not enrolled at all, is education with 119 students. In the academic year 2023/2024, the educational field that shows a more significant increase in enrolled students compared to the previous academic year is social sciences, journalism and information with 35.7%. On the contrary, arts and humanities, with 21.3%, is the one with the most prominent negative variation.