Fewer Students Pursued STEM-Related Courses in 2021, Destatis Revealed
According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the main cause for this decline is related to the total number of newly enrolled people, which also dropped throughout 2019, AtoZSerwisPlus.de reports.
In addition, these rates were down by four per cent compared to 2019, while the number of students between 17 and 22 years old in Germany decreased during this time. The proportion of students in their first semester on these courses was also dropping during the same time. About 37.7 per cent decided in favour of a STEM object in 2021, while that share was 40.5 per cent in 2015.
Furthermore, the total number of students in all subjects was 815,141 students, while a total of 307,059 students were recorded in STEM courses. This took the total number of students of all STEM subject groups taken together to 1,090,804 throughout 2021.
On the other hand, data from Erudera.com, the first AI-backed platform for search education shows that Germany’s most popular subject among international students is engineering, with a total of 136,579 students, followed by those that study Law, Economics and Social Sciences, with 79,415 students.
Furthermore, mathematics, natural sciences and humanities are the third and fourth most sought subjects, which count 33,341 and 28,700 international students, respectively. Another 14,651 international students are enrolled in Health Sciences and Human Medicine, while Art and Art Studies have a total of 13,110 students.
“The number of international students enrolled in Art and Art Studies is 13,110, and 5,441 students in Agriculture, Forestry, Nutritional Science, and Veterinary Medicine. In other fields of study not mentioned above, there are currently 1,910 international students,” data by Erudera.com explains.
Universities, there are two types that are most common in Germany, the University and the University of Applied Sciences. The majority of international students are enrolled at universities; 228,292 while another 98,437 are studying at a University of Applied Sciences, taking the total number to 324,729 international students.
Furthermore, 66,842 are enrolled at an undergraduate level while 105,457 are studying for a Master’s Degree, with the latter representing the biggest group of international students based on the graduate level.
