Andalusia is the community that offers several new places in the country in general through its public university system with a total of 51,128 representing 20.8% of the overall offer. They are followed by the Madrid community, with 41,540 places, and Catalonia, with 38,652. These numbers refer to the academic year 2023-2024 and are extracted from the report «University data and figures of the Spanish university system,» analyzed by the Ministry of University, Research, and Innovation.
When comparing the offer of this type of study with previous courses, there has been a sustained growth in the last three academic years: 0.56% compared to 2022-2023, 1% in relation to the academic year 2021-2022, and 0.82% if we consider the 2020-2021 academic year.
48.2% of the places in the 2023-2024 academic year, totaling 24,649, are focused on degrees related to the field of social and legal sciences. Engineering and architecture are the second field in terms of number of places, with 9,149 (17.9%), while the rest is distributed among Health Sciences (7,263 places and a representation rate of 14.2%), Arts and Humanities (5,991 seats and a percentage of 11.7%), and Science (4,076 seats, representing 8%).
In this distribution, the preference of Andalusian students for careers in the social and legal sciences has shown a fluctuating trend of increases and decreases since the 2020-2021 academic year, a year in which 24,620 places were quantified and which saw a substantial decrease compared to the previous five years, when this type of field contained 25,543 places in the 2015-2016 academic year.
In the analysis prepared by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities, the significant evolution experienced by health sciences is noteworthy, as they have attracted students progressively, especially in the last two years analyzed, due to the increase in health vocations after the Covid-19 pandemic. In the 2022-2023 academic year, 7,094 places were recorded, and in 2021-2022, a total of 6,849. Regarding engineering and architecture, the offer has seen a gradual decrease since the 2015-2016 academic year, going from 10,331 places in that period to 9,149 in the 2023-2024 academic year. Degrees in the sciences have maintained a more or less constant trend since 2015-2016, with numbers slightly above 4,000 seats.
420 undergraduate degrees and 537 master’s degrees taught in the community
Regarding the educational offer of diplomas, the Andalusian university system ranks third behind Madrid and Catalonia, with 420 undergraduate degrees taught during the 2023-2024 academic year (according to the latest statistics on universities, centers, and diplomas published by the Ministry), accounting for 12.61% of the 3,330 titles implemented throughout the National Territory. The number of degrees increased by 6.87% compared to the 2019-2020 academic year, when 393 were offered.
The same third place is repeated when it comes to the geographical distribution of master’s degrees, with 537 degrees and a rate of 13.26%, in relation to the overall map of the national system, which includes 4,049 postgraduate programs of this kind. In this regard, the Madrid and Catalonia communities also lead the ranking. The master’s programs in Andalusia have shown a growth trend in the last five years, increasing from 524 titles in 2019-2020 to 537 in 2023-2024, representing a 2.48% increase.
As for PhD programs, Andalusia ranks fourth behind Catalonia, Madrid, and the Valencian community, with a portfolio of 153 programs of this nature, monopolizing 12.60% of the national offer, which consists of 1,214 programs. These programs saw a slightly higher increase of 3.38% compared to the 2019-2020 academic year, going from 148 to 153.
87.2% of students remain in Andalusia to study at the university
Out of the students who moved to another community to access university education in the 2023-2024 academic year, 4.5% went to a campus in the Madrid community, and 1.4% moved to the Murcia region. The higher education system in Andalusia also attracts students from other communities, with Extremadura being the biggest contributor with 19.8%, followed by Castilla-La Mancha (6.5%), the Balearic Islands (5.7%), the Canary Islands (5.5%), and Murcia (3.9%). Students aiming to access universities in Cantabria, Castilla y León, and the Valencian community also arrived in Andalusia, accounting for 1% or slightly higher.
During the 2022-2023 academic year in Andalusia, 10.1% of the 199,725 students attended a university in a different community, while this percentage increased to 34.9% when the change was made within regional boundaries, involving only a provincial transfer.
In terms of provinces, based on the 2022-2023 academic year, Seville with 51,495 students, is the fourth province in Spain with the highest number of students enrolled in face-to-face education with ordinary residence in the same province, behind Madrid, Barcelona, or Valencia. In Almería, the registered residence in the same province was 16,057, in Cádiz, 28,414. In Córdoba, 19,649, in Granada, 23,356, in Huelva, 11,591, in Jaén, 17,061, and in Málaga, 34,552.