Number of students completing degrees rose by more than 6 percentage points in 5 years
Graduation rates across universities in Argentina increased over 40 percent between 2003 and 2012, according to a new report released by the Centre for Educational Studies in Argentina (CEA).
The report, a combined project led by the CEA in partnership with the University of Belgrano, revealed that the number of students graduating from both public and private universities increased by an average of 42.1 percent.
The document also revealed an increase in graduation rates for the social sciences by an even bigger margin — 50.1 percent over the 10-year period. There was also a sizeable increase in students choosing to study social sciences, such as history or sociology, over applied sciences.
In fact, the latest figures available show 45 out of every 100 students in Argentina chose and completed a subject in this discipline.
Over the decade examined in the report, the 42.1-percent increase of total graduates nationwide equated to a total of 110,360 students receiving diplomas in 2012, up from 77,690 in 2003.
The figures also showed the ongoing and noticeable differences between between state and privately run universities.
Both forms of higher education increased their output of successful graduates, up from 59,269 to 73,483 in the state sector (a 23.9 percent increase) and from 18,421 to 36,877 in the private sector (almost precisely double, a 100.2 percent increase).
However, there was a divergence between entrance and graduation rates between the sectors. Free, state-funded universities gently decreased the number of students taken on each year — by a final total of 12.9 percent over the decade examined by the study — but inversely witnessed an increase in the number of students graduating year on year, up 12.5 percent in total, indicating increased efficiency at state universities.
“During the last three years, there has been an increasing worry among all actors in the education system with regards not just access but also drop-out rates,” Claudio Suasnabar, an education expert at the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO), told the Herald.
This should help to explain the recent improvement, although lengthy careers and other structural problems remain — and result in the still worrying dropout rates at the university level, he added.
Meanwhile, universities in the private sector took on substantially more students over the period, up 62.2 percent, which was reflected in the marked increase in the number of graduates arriving from the private eductaion system. However, the overall percentage of students graduating from the private sector declined.
Where 54.3 percent made the grade in the 2002-2008 period, that overall number decreased to 42.3 percent between 2006-2012, suggesting a growing divergence of performance levels between the state and private sectors.
Popularity boom
While performance levels appeared to move in different directions between state and private universities, the number of students graduating with a degree in social sciences increased sharply across both sectors during the study period. 8,780 more students graduated with this type of degree between 2003 and 2012, a 38.6 percent increase across the decade. Marginally less joined the graduate ranks from the private sector in this field, up by 7,843.
However this represented a massive increase in the popularity of social science courses among private students, equating to a 74.9 percent increase.
Overall, the number of students graduating within social sciences showed a significant 50.1 percent increase across all sectors during the decade, suggesting a feel of declining stability in the Argentine job market across all academic disciplines, even in those traditionally associated with a stable career such as the applied sciences.
In 2012, 49,814 of students completing university graduated with a social science degree, meaning that 45 percent of students in Argentina across all universities chose (and completed) a subject in this field.
Applied sciences on the other hand struggled to keep up. The numbers of graduates in subjects across the discipline such as engineering still rose, but overall in far smaller quantaties. 6,700 extra students graduated with an applied sciences degree (4,341 from the state sector, 2,359 from private universities), representing a far more modest increase overall of 37.5 percent next to the booming social sciences 50.1 percent increase.
In this regard, Suasnabar said he believed scientific scolarships and grants for engineering programmes to be good policies. Nevertheless, he warned about the fact that some students are leaving college not out of frustration, but because they had an early entry to the full-time working world — often tempted by high wages.
“Information Systems is the classic example of a career with low graduation rates but high employability rates,” the FLACSO experts said. “The labour market is demanding lots of advanced students.”
Divergent institutions
The CEA study also provided data for individual state universities across Argentina, and highlighted a striking range of graduation rates between different institutions. The national average between 2003 and 2012 stood at a completion rate of 26.9 percent, but this was born from a noticeably large span of results.
The relatively small University of La Matanza topped the graduation league table by securing a graduation rate of 59.8 percent for the 3,625 entrants finishing in 2012, while the similarly sized Jujuy University had the lowest completion rate. Of over 3,000 entrants finishing in 2012, only 154 sucessfully completed their degree, an equivilant pass-rate of 4.5 percent.
The nation’s larger, primary state universities showed similar, middling graduation rates to each other at around a one-in-three pass rate, slightly higer than the national average of 26.9 percent, with Rosario performing the best with 44.2 percent of 13,849 entrants graduating in 2012.
The University of Buenos Aires, the biggest in Argentina, had a pass rate of 30.6 percent of the 54,412 entrants due to finish in 2012, while its slightly less populus equivilant in Córdoba, renowned for its large student population, fared slightly better with 36.9 percent of students graduating.
The data provided by the CEA report on how individual universities performed arrived at the figure of an average pass rate by comparing the number of entrants in 2006 with those graduating in 2012. Consequently, all students commencing a course in 2006 were counted, including those with courses longer or shorter than six years and those required to repeat a certain year.
Herald staff
Graduation rates across universities in Argentina increased over 40 percent between 2003 and 2012, according to a new report released by the Centre for Educational Studies in Argentina (CEA).
The report, a combined project led by the CEA in partnership with the University of Belgrano, revealed that the number of students graduating from both public and private universities increased by an average of 42.1 percent.
The document also revealed an increase in graduation rates for the social sciences by an even bigger margin — 50.1 percent over the 10-year period. There was also a sizeable increase in students choosing to study social sciences, such as history or sociology, over applied sciences.
In fact, the latest figures available show 45 out of every 100 students in Argentina chose and completed a subject in this discipline.
Over the decade examined in the report, the 42.1-percent increase of total graduates nationwide equated to a total of 110,360 students receiving diplomas in 2012, up from 77,690 in 2003.
The figures also showed the ongoing and noticeable differences between between state and privately run universities.
Both forms of higher education increased their output of successful graduates, up from 59,269 to 73,483 in the state sector (a 23.9 percent increase) and from 18,421 to 36,877 in the private sector (almost precisely double, a 100.2 percent increase).
However, there was a divergence between entrance and graduation rates between the sectors. Free, state-funded universities gently decreased the number of students taken on each year — by a final total of 12.9 percent over the decade examined by the study — but inversely witnessed an increase in the number of students graduating year on year, up 12.5 percent in total, indicating increased efficiency at state universities.
“During the last three years, there has been an increasing worry among all actors in the education system with regards not just access but also drop-out rates,” Claudio Suasnabar, an education expert at the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO), told the Herald.
This should help to explain the recent improvement, although lengthy careers and other structural problems remain — and result in the still worrying dropout rates at the university level, he added.
Meanwhile, universities in the private sector took on substantially more students over the period, up 62.2 percent, which was reflected in the marked increase in the number of graduates arriving from the private eductaion system. However, the overall percentage of students graduating from the private sector declined.
Where 54.3 percent made the grade in the 2002-2008 period, that overall number decreased to 42.3 percent between 2006-2012, suggesting a growing divergence of performance levels between the state and private sectors.
Popularity boom
While performance levels appeared to move in different directions between state and private universities, the number of students graduating with a degree in social sciences increased sharply across both sectors during the study period. 8,780 more students graduated with this type of degree between 2003 and 2012, a 38.6 percent increase across the decade. Marginally less joined the graduate ranks from the private sector in this field, up by 7,843.
However this represented a massive increase in the popularity of social science courses among private students, equating to a 74.9 percent increase.
Overall, the number of students graduating within social sciences showed a significant 50.1 percent increase across all sectors during the decade, suggesting a feel of declining stability in the Argentine job market across all academic disciplines, even in those traditionally associated with a stable career such as the applied sciences.
In 2012, 49,814 of students completing university graduated with a social science degree, meaning that 45 percent of students in Argentina across all universities chose (and completed) a subject in this field.
Applied sciences on the other hand struggled to keep up. The numbers of graduates in subjects across the discipline such as engineering still rose, but overall in far smaller quantaties. 6,700 extra students graduated with an applied sciences degree (4,341 from the state sector, 2,359 from private universities), representing a far more modest increase overall of 37.5 percent next to the booming social sciences 50.1 percent increase.
In this regard, Suasnabar said he believed scientific scolarships and grants for engineering programmes to be good policies. Nevertheless, he warned about the fact that some students are leaving college not out of frustration, but because they had an early entry to the full-time working world — often tempted by high wages.
“Information Systems is the classic example of a career with low graduation rates but high employability rates,” the FLACSO experts said. “The labour market is demanding lots of advanced students.”
Divergent institutions
The CEA study also provided data for individual state universities across Argentina, and highlighted a striking range of graduation rates between different institutions. The national average between 2003 and 2012 stood at a completion rate of 26.9 percent, but this was born from a noticeably large span of results.
The relatively small University of La Matanza topped the graduation league table by securing a graduation rate of 59.8 percent for the 3,625 entrants finishing in 2012, while the similarly sized Jujuy University had the lowest completion rate. Of over 3,000 entrants finishing in 2012, only 154 sucessfully completed their degree, an equivilant pass-rate of 4.5 percent.
The nation’s larger, primary state universities showed similar, middling graduation rates to each other at around a one-in-three pass rate, slightly higer than the national average of 26.9 percent, with Rosario performing the best with 44.2 percent of 13,849 entrants graduating in 2012.
The University of Buenos Aires, the biggest in Argentina, had a pass rate of 30.6 percent of the 54,412 entrants due to finish in 2012, while its slightly less populus equivilant in Córdoba, renowned for its large student population, fared slightly better with 36.9 percent of students graduating.
The data provided by the CEA report on how individual universities performed arrived at the figure of an average pass rate by comparing the number of entrants in 2006 with those graduating in 2012. Consequently, all students commencing a course in 2006 were counted, including those with courses longer or shorter than six years and those required to repeat a certain year.
Herald staff
