Women have better academic results than men in Valencian public universities, according to data recently updated by SIUVP, the web platform managed by the Ivie, which integrates information on the University of Valencia, the University of Alacant, the Jaume I University of Castelló, the Miguel Hernández University of Elche and the Universitat Politècnica de València.
The degree success rate, i.e. the percentage of passed credits out of the total number of credits submitted, stands at 91% for female students, while it drops to 86% for male students in the 2018-2019 academic year (latest available). As a whole, the average number of degree credits passed compared to those submitted is 89%, 1.5 points above the average for Spanish public universities.
The better female performance is maintained in each of the five educational areas analysed. The biggest advantage is observed in Social Sciences and Law, where women have a success rate of 91% compared to 87% for men. However, better pass rates are also found in Arts and Humanities (93% vs. 90%), Sciences (89% vs. 87%), Health Sciences (93% vs. 91%) and Architecture and Engineering (85% vs. 83%). In the latter case, the better performance of women can be seen, despite the fact that female students are a minority compared to the 73.5% of male students. In other words, although there are still few women who choose this educational area, those who do so obtain better results than men.
However, this gender difference shown in degrees does not seem to be significant in master studies, where there is only a one-point gap between the success rate of male students (98%) and female students (99%). Among the factors that may explain the higher average success rate in Master’s degrees than in Bachelor’s degrees is the fact that they are specifically chosen to enhance postgraduate education, of shorter duration, with higher tuition fees and a higher student age.
The SIUVP platform (Valencian Public University System of Information), created by public Valencian universities and Ivie (Valencian Institute of Economic Research) has recently updated 27 of the indicators that integrates. In addition to those referring to academic performance, the website extends the time period of the information corresponding to other aspects related to the student body, internationalisation, human resources or research and transfer.
Following this update, the percentage of undergraduate students from other provinces continues to increase, reaching 24.4%. In other words, almost one in four undergraduate students at Valencian public universities had their home address in another province. In the academic year 2018/2019, which was not yet affected by the outbreak of the coronavirus and its restrictions on mobility, the number of foreign university students also continued to grow. The five universities analysed had 5.8% of undergraduate students from other countries, compared to the 3.8% recorded seven years earlier, in the 2012/2013 academic year. If, instead of undergraduate students, the data for foreign Master's students is compiled, this percentage rises to 17.8% in the last academic year.
The data, provided by the universities themselves to show transparency, also includes general information on university access and enrolment rates. In the 2018/2019 academic year, a total of 35,339 new students (including bachelor's and master's degrees) were enrolled in Valencian public universities, with an occupancy rate in bachelor's degrees that reached 92.3%.
The information collected by the SIUVP platform ranges from the most academic aspects, such as teaching supply and demand, to more specific economic data on the resources and results of each university's activity. Specifically, the indicators are grouped into the following fields:
- University access
- Students
- Academic performance
- Internationalisation
- Human resources
- Research and transfer
- Economic data
All indicators are available at www.siuvp.es
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