OECD: Women more likely to finish university

Female university students are more likely to complete their higher education than their male student colleagues. But women still earn less money than men in most countries. These are just a few of the insights that can be found in the just-released annual report Education at a glance from OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The OECD report shows that the Danish graduation rate, the percentage of an age group, that get a university degree, is pretty average.

But once Danish students start, they finish.

The percentage of Danish students that complete their higher education once started is 84 percent, putting Denmark high on the OECD tables.

Education pays

During times of recession, those with a higher education have a higher chance of keeping their job and finding new work, according to the report.

Education is also positively correlated with salary income and how long a person stays in the labour force.

In one of its first reports since the global economic crisis hit the world in 2008, the OECD argues for more public resources to educational systems, not less. It is an investment in the future, it says. This year’s report argues that public resources in education will pay off later in the form of higher tax revenues and benefits to societies.

More students going abroad

More young people are going to another country to study: The number of international students worldwide has quadrupled since 1975, the report states. Since the year 2000 the number of students studying abroad has increased from just under two million, to over 3.3 million in 2008. In the OECD countries, the largest national groups of international students are China and India.

Just under three percent of students in Denmark are international students, with a large proportion of them coming from Norway, Sweden, Iceland and China, according to the OECD tables.

As for Danes, it is most popular to study in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Norway and Sweden.

See the whole OECD report here.

Uni-avis@adm.ku.dk