Women now make up 61% of full-time University of Malta students

Women account for 61.01 per cent of all full-time students at the University of Malta, Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation Clifton Grima told Parliament on Wednesday.

He added that 38.84 per cent of full-time students are male, while the remaining 0.15 per cent identify as “X”, highlighting a continuing gender shift in Malta’s higher education landscape.

The figures reflect ongoing trends observed in recent years, with women consistently outnumbering men in full-time tertiary education.

The Minister did not elaborate on the distribution across faculties, though historically disciplines such as health sciences, education and social sciences have had higher female participation rates.

University maintains momentum after series of 2025 ranking improvements

The latest student demographic update comes on the back of what has been described as a positive year for the University of Malta (UM) in international ranking performance.

According to data published in January 2025, the University registered better scores across all major categories in the Times Higher Education (THE) 2025 assessment. UM improved in:

• Teaching: +0.5 points
• Research Environment: +1.1 points
• Research Quality: +0.4 points
• Industry Impact: +12.8 points
• International Outlook: +4 points

Despite these improvements, UM retained its position at 801st out of 1,000 universities assessed.