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Statistics Iceland has published data on graduates at the upper secondary and tertiary levels of education during the school year 2003/2004.

Never before have more students graduated from the tertiary level

There were 3.165 graduates with 3.197 graduations at the tertiary level of education in 2003-2004. Never before have more students graduated at the tertiary level of education in Iceland in one school year. The number of graduates increased by 278, or by 9.6% since the previous year. The number of female graduates increased by 215, and the number of males by 63, resulting in a greater difference between the sexes in the number of tertiary level graduates. Females are 64.4% of graduates at the tertiary level of education while males are 35.6% of graduates.

The greatest increase is in graduations with a first university degree or by 262 from the previous year (15.4%). The number of students completing a master’s degree increased by 98 or by 51.9% from the previous year. A total of 11 students completed the Ph.D. degree during the school year, 3 more than in the school year 2002-2003.

4,736 graduates from the upper secondary level, never more

More than 4,700 (4,736) students graduated from the upper secondary level of education with more than 5,200 (5,212) graduations during the school year 2003/2004. This is an increase of 105 graduates from the previous year, or by 2.3%. Never before have more students graduated from the upper secondary level in one school year since Statistics Iceland started its data collection in 1995. Females are more numerous than males or 54.1% of graduates. The number of female graduates increased by 150, while the number of males decreased by 45 from the school year 2002-2003. Graduations with matriculation exam are by far the most numerous at the upper secondary level, almost one-half (48.6%) of all graduations. There were 508 graduations with the journeyman’s examination, 57 fewer than during the previous school year. Almost 4 out of every 5 (79.1%) graduations with the journeyman’s exam are obtained my men. On the other hand there were 39 more graduations with school certificates in the certified trades, an increase from 595 to 634. In addition, the number of students graduating with a vocational certificate or with a vocational diploma of competence increased from the previous school year.

Fewer students complete the matriculation exam but a greater proportion of the corresponding age group

There were more than 2,500 graduates (2,515) from 29 schools with a matriculation exam during the 2003/2004 school year, 15 fewer than in the previous year. The number of males decreased by 31, while the number of females increased by 16 from the previous year. The proportion of students completing the matriculation exam increased as a proportion of 20 year olds, since that age cohort is smaller than in the previous year. Since the school year 1998/1999 the proportion of students completing the matriculation exam had been just under 50% of the number of 20 year olds. In the school year 2002-2003 the proportion increased to 58.4% and this year to 60.3% of this age group and has never been greater. It should be noticed that the number of females completing the matriculation exam is much greater than the number of males. In the school year 2003/2004 1,572 females completed this exam, 76.7% of the number of 20 year olds that year, but 943 males, 44.5% of that age group. There were fewer students completing the matriculation examination in the traditional age group of 20 year olds while the number of students completing the matriculation exam in the under 20 year old age group and aged 30 years and older increased from the school year 2002-2003. These 2,515 students graduated with 2,535 graduations, since a few graduated from two or three lines of study. Thereof there were 2,195 graduations with a general matriculation examination and 340 with a vocational matriculation examination. The number of graduates with the latter exam has increased year by year while the number of graduates with a general matriculation exam has decreased by 167 from the previous school year.