TertiaryEducation

The State of Education Series

Author: Jennifer KleinEdStats Team Leader: Emilio Porta

September 2011

A Global Report

Tertiary Education: Indicators

This presentation includes data on: Gross Enrollment Rates (GER) for pre-

primary and tertiary Correlations between GDP per capita and

enrollment rates for each educational level Income/Gender/Location Disparities Expenditures on Tertiary Education

Acronym Guide

Acronym NameEAP East Asia and Pacific

ECA Europe and Central Asia

LAC Latin American and the Caribbean

MNA Middle East and North Africa

SAS South AsiaSSA Sub-Saharan AfricaWLD World (Global Aggregate)FTI Education for All Fast Track Initiative CountriesIDA International Development AssociationGER Gross Enrollment Rate

GDP p.c. Gross Domestic Product per capitaNAR Net Attendance Rate

GPI Gender Parity Index (female value/male value)

Tertiary Enrollments

How many youth are enrolled?Tertiary – Gross Enrolment Rates (GER)

Just over ¼ of tertiary age youth were enrolled in tertiary education 2009 (27%). This figure was a 9 percentage point improvement over 1999 (18%).

ECA has consistently had the highest tertiary GERs of any region. Over half (55%) of tertiary age youth were enrolled in 2009 which is a 19.2 percentage point increase over 1999.

SSA lags behind other regions with 3.9% of youth enrolled in 1999 and 6.3% in 2009.

1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 20090

10

20

30

40

50

60

18.120.0

22.524.0

25.9 27.1

EAP ECA LAC MNA SAS SSA WLD

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, July 2011Note: SAS 2009 is 2008 data.

Gro

ss E

nro

lmen

t R

ate.

Ter

tiar

y (I

SC

ED

5 &

6).

To

tal

(%)

Almost ¾ of tertiary age youth around the world are not enrolled in tertiary education.

Which countries have the lowest tertiary enrollment rates?

8 of 10 countries are in SSA. Only 4 countries of the top 20 are not in SSA (Dominica, Djibouti, Afghanistan and Pakistan).

#10 Ethiopia’s GER more than doubles the GER of #1 Niger.

9 countries have tertiary GERs higher than 80% and 4 countries have tertiary GERs higher than 90%: Greece, South Korea, Finland and Cuba. Cuba’s GER is 117%.

10 Countries with the Lowest Tertiary Gross Enrollment Rates

(2007-2010)

1 Niger 1.43

2 Eritrea 1.98

3 Chad 2.00

4 Central African Republic 2.46

5 Burundi 2.68

6 Burkina Faso 3.41

7 Dominica 3.46

8 Djibouti 3.47

9 Madagascar 3.58

10 Ethiopia 3.60

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Aug. 2011Notes: Figures are most recent year with data between 2007-2010. Maroon =

2008; Black = 2009; Blue = 2010. Data was not available for 74 countries.

Which countries have improved tertiary enrolment rates the most?

These countries have improved their tertiary gross enrolment rates by 29 to 95 percentage points between 2000 and 2009.

6 countries more than doubled their 2000 tertiary GER – Cuba, Venezuela, Romania, Macao, Cyprus, and the Czech Rep.

All of the countries are in LAC or ECA except Macao SAR, China.

10 Countries with the Most Improvement in Tertiary

Enrollment RatesPercentage

Points Improved

2000 NER

2009 NER

% Improved

1 Cuba 95.5 22.3 117.8 428.1

2 Venezuela, RB 49.8 28.4 78.2 175.2

3 Romania 43.0 24.0 67.1 179.0

4 Greece 39.6 51.2 90.8 77.4

5 Macao SAR, China 36.2 26.7 62.9 135.6

6 Cyprus 32.4 19.6 52.0 165.8

7 Ukraine 32.2 48.9 81.1 65.7

8 Slovenia 32.0 55.6 87.6 57.7

9 Czech Republic 31.4 29.4 60.9 106.9

10

Lithuania 29.2 50.4 79.5 57.9

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Sept. 2011; Notes: Greece 2009 NER is 2007 data; Data were not

available for 111 of 213 countries.

Tertiary Gross Enrollment Rate (%) (2007-2010)

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, 2011Note: Data displayed is for the latest available year

The maps displayed were produced by EdStats. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of the World Bank Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. The maps are for reference only.

Country-Land

GERS< - 40

40 - 70

> - 70

No data available

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 450000

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

R² = 0.168006265296506

GDP per capita in thousands (constant 2000$)

Gro

ss E

nro

llm

ent

Rat

e. T

erti

ary

(IS

CE

D 5

& 6

). T

ota

l (2

007-

2010

)

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, July 2011

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

Andorra Qatar

Dominica

Korea, Rep.

Cuba

FinlandGreece

Do countries with higher GDP p.c. have higher tertiary enrollments?

Most countries with GDP pc less than $1000 have tertiary GERs less than 15%.

Ukraine is one exception with a GER of 81%; Mongolia (53%), Moldova (38%), Tajikistan (20%) are three other examples of low income countries with higher GERs.

Countries with GDP pc more than $15,000 have tertiary GERs higher than 50% except for Andorra, UAE, Qatar, Bermuda, and Liechtenstein.

Countries with a GDP pc higher than $15,000 generally have tertiary GERs higher than 50%.

1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 20090.55

0.60

0.65

0.70

0.75

0.80

0.85

0.90

0.95

1.00

1.05

1.10

1.15

1.20

1.25

1.30

0.98

1.001.02

1.051.07 1.08

WLD EAP ECA LAC MNA SAS SSA

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, August 2011Note: SAS for 2009 is 2008 figure.

Gen

der

Par

ity In

dex

(GP

I) fo

r G

ross

Enr

olm

ent R

ate.

Ter

tiary

Which regions have reached gender parity in tertiary enrollments?

Globally, the gender parity index (GPI) for tertiary enrollments has been increasing from 0.98 in 1999 to 1.08 in 2009. The global female GER is now higher than the global male GER.

MNA is the only region within +/- 0.05 of gender parity in 2009.

LAC and ECA have consistently had higher female GERs, and EAP has reversed from a male bias to a female bias.

SAS and SSA have remained stagnant over time with a male bias in tertiary enrolments.

Gender disparities in tertiary enrolment rates vary greatly across regions.

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

5.5

6.0

6.5

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, August, 2011Note: Data points are the most recent year with data available (2007-

2010)

Gen

der

Par

ity In

dex

(GP

I) fo

r G

ross

Enr

olm

ent R

atio

. Ter

tiary

Does gender parity exist in tertiary enrollments in most countries?

Only 11 countries are within +/-0.05 of gender parity in tertiary enrollments.

64% of countries have a female bias in tertiary enrolments. Many of these countries are in LAC or are high income countries.

In 8 countries, the female GER more than doubles the male GER. These countries are island nations in LAC and Qatar.

Many countries have higher female enrolment rates than male enrolment rates in tertiary education.

Female Bias

Male Bias

Which countries have the largest gender disparities in tertiary enrolments?

10 Countries with the Largest Male Bias in Tertiary Enrolments

(2007-2010)

1 Chad 0.17

2 Congo, Rep. 0.21

3 Afghanistan 0.24

4 Ethiopia 0.31

5 Eritrea 0.33

6 Guinea 0.34

7 Congo, Dem. Rep. 0.35

8 Niger 0.36

9 Mali 0.41

10 Tajikistan 0.41

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Aug. 2011; Notes: Blue figures are 2010 data; Black=2009; Maroon=2008;

Data were not available for 77 of 213 countries.

10 Countries with the Largest Female Bias in Tertiary Enrolments

(2007-2010)

1 Qatar 6.31

2 Dominica 3.22

3 St. Lucia 2.58

4 Bermuda 2.56

5 Jamaica 2.22

6 Antigua and Barbuda 2.21

7 Cayman Islands 2.16

8 St. Kitts and Nevis 2.10

9 Iceland 1.92

10 United Arab Emirates 1.89

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Aug. 2011;

Notes: Blue figures are 2010 data; Black=2009; Maroon=2008;

Data were not available for 77 of 213 countries.

Do gender, income, or location disparities exist in post-secondary attendance ratios?

Levels of gender disparity in post-secondary attendance are much lower than levels of location and income disparity. More girls than boys attend post-secondary schools in EAP, ECA, and LAC.

Rural areas have between 5 (SSA) and 15 (LAC) percent lower attendance ratios than urban areas.

Income is the largest source of disparity across regions. Income disparities range from 8 percentage points in SSA to 34 in LAC.2

Income is the largest source of disparity in post-secondary gross attendance ratios in all regions.

EAP ECA LAC MNA SAS SSA-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35Gender disparityLocation disparityIncome disparity

Pe

rce

nta

ge

Po

int

Dif

fere

nc

e in

Gro

ss

Att

en

da

nc

e R

ati

o. P

os

t-S

ec

. (M

ale

-Fe

ma

le,

Urb

an

-Ru

ral,

an

d Q

uin

tile

1-Q

uin

tile

5)

Source: Estimated by Porta (2011) using data from Demographic and Health Sur-veys, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, and Living Standards

Measurement Studies for 1985-2007

Expenditures on Tertiary Education

Which regions spend more per student on tertiary education?

Countries on average spend 57.7% of GDP per capita per tertiary education student.

SSA countries have the highest average per student spending (181.9%) and a large range between the countries with the lowest (16.7%) and highest (520.4%) levels of per student spending.

The next closest region to SSA is SAS at 81.9%.

All other regions have average per student spending ranging between 27.3% (LAC) and 32.3 (EAP).

Public Expenditure per Tertiary Student as a % of GDP per capita

(2007-2010)

EAP ECA LAC MNA SAS SSA IDA FTI WLD

Average 32.3 27.5 27.3 31.6 81.9 181.9 146.6 121.1 57.7

Median 22.3 25.2 26.2 21.7 55.5 139.5 118.4 102.9 27.2

Maximum 92.7 62.2 58.8 71.1 150.4 520.4 520.4 429.4 520.4

Minimum 9.5 7.4 12.1 10.2 39.8 16.7 17.3 11.2 7.4

# of Countries

with data/Total

13/ 31

38/ 53

14/ 38

8/ 21 3/8 17/

4722/ 62

19/ 43

95/ 201

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, July 2011Note: Figures are for the most recent year with data available (2007-2010)

Which countries spend the least per student on tertiary education?

Half of the countries are in ECA.

5 of these countries spend more on primary and secondary than tertiary (less than 1.0). 2 countries (El Salvador and Philippines) spend less on primary and secondary than tertiary.

Korea, Rep. has the 5th lowest spending level, but has a 100% gross enrollment rate. The Russian Federation also has a high GER (77.2%) despite low spending.

6 of 10 countries have private enrollment shares higher than 56%.

10 Countries with the Lowest Share of p.c. GDP per Tertiary Student

(2007-2010)

Share of pc GDP for

tertiary

Ratio of Tertiary to Primary

Ratio of Tertiary to Secondary

Tertiary GER

Private Enrollment Share (%)

1 Armenia 7.4 0.42 0.26 50.1 22.8

2 Kazakhstan 7.9 39.5 47.3

3 Liechtenstein 9.2 0.85 0.48 34.7 100.0

4 Philippines 9.5 1.06 1.05 28.7 65.9

5 Korea, Rep. 10.1 0.52 0.44 100.0 80.4

6 Lebanon 10.2 52.5 56.0

7 Georgia 11.2 0.77 0.74 25.8 28.5

8 Chile 12.1 0.82 0.76 54.8 78.0

9 El Salvador 13.7 1.61 1.51 24.6 66.4

10 Russian Fed. 14.2 77.2 14.2

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, July 2011Note: Figures are for the most recent year with data available:

Blue figures are for 2007; Green for 2008; Black for 2009; Beige for 2010; Data were not available for 106 countries.

Which countries spend the most per student on tertiary education?

All countries except Bhutan are in SSA.

These countries spend from 140% to 520% of GDP per capital per tertiary student, but all have gross enrollment rates less than 8%.

All countries spend drastically more per tertiary student than per primary or secondary student. For example, Rwanda spends 27 times more per student on tertiary than primary. These countries seem to prioritize spending on tertiary education over other levels.

10 Countries with the Highest Share of p.c. GDP per Tertiary Student

(2007-2010)

Share of pc GDP for

tertiary

Ratio of Tertiary to Primary

Ratio of Tertiary to Secondary

Tertiary NER

Private Enrollment Share (%)

1 Burundi 520.4 24.7 8.8 2.7 53.0

2 Niger 429.4 15.2 7.6 1.4 25.0

3 Burkina Faso 307.1 10.6 10.2 3.4 17.8

4 Botswana 251.5 20.3 6.7

5 Chad 212.8 17.1 9.0 2.0 31.8

6 Rwanda 211.7 27.0 6.5 4.8 64.2

7 Senegal 195.6 9.2 7.6 8.0 29.8

8 Togo 155.2 11.9 8.1 5.3

9 Bhutan 150.4 21.0 4.8 6.6

10 Madagascar 139.5 18.6 12.6 3.6 22.2

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, July 2011Note: Figures are for the most recent year with data available:

Blue figures are for 2007; Green for 2008; Black for 2009; Beige for 2010; Data were not available for 106 countries.

Public Expenditure per pupil as a % of GDP per capita. Tertiary

(2007-2010)

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, 2011Note: Data displayed is for the latest available year

The maps displayed were produced by EdStats. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of the World Bank Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. The maps are for reference only.

Country-Land

EXPENTER< - 40

40 - 100

100 - <

No data available

Which countries spend the least on tertiary compared to primary?

10 Countries with the Lowest Ratio of Tertiary to Primary Per Student Expenditures as a % of GDP pc

(2007-2010)

Share of pc GDP for tertiary

Ratio of Tertiary to Primary

Ratio of Tertiary to Secondary

1 Armenia 7.4 0.42 0.26

2 Korea, Rep. 10.1 0.52 0.44

3 Latvia 17.5 0.60 0.61

4 Poland 16.6 0.68 0.75

5 Serbia 40.1 0.70 2.95

6 Georgia 11.2 0.77 0.74

7 Chile 12.1 0.82 0.76

8 Liechtenstein 9.2 0.85 0.48

9 Estonia 22.2 0.85 0.75

10 Thailand 22.3 0.93 2.44

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, July 2011Note: Figures include data for the most recent

year (2007-2010) with data available.

7 of 10 countries are in ECA and 2 are in EAP.

5 countries have private enrolment shares higher than 77%, which seems to show that the private sector compensates for the lower levels of public funding of tertiary education.

Armenia and Korea, Rep. spend half as much per tertiary student than per primary student.

Serbia and Thailand spend less on secondary and tertiary compared to primary.

Which countries spend the most on tertiary compared to primary?

9 of 10 countries are in SSA.

The listed countries spend from 14 to 27 times more per tertiary student than per primary student.

They also spend between 5 to 12 times more per tertiary student than per secondary student.

These data seem to show that most of these countries prioritize public funding of 1) tertiary, 2) secondary, and finally 3) primary education.

10 Countries with the Highest Ratio of Tertiary to Primary Per Student Expenditures as a % of GDP pc

(2007-2010)

Share of pc GDP for tertiary

Ratio of Tertiary to Primary

Ratio of Tertiary to Secondary

1 Central African Rep. 124.1 27.34 7.69

2 Rwanda 211.7 27.05 6.49

3 Burundi 520.4 24.66 8.77

4 Bhutan 150.4 20.98 4.77

5 Botswana 251.5 20.31 6.69

6 Madagascar 139.5 18.59 12.63

7 Chad 212.8 17.12 9.03

8 Niger 429.4 15.17 7.59

9 Uganda 105.4 14.47 4.96

10 Guinea 102.9 14.35 16.28

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, July 2011Note: Figures include data for the most recent

year (2007-2010) with data available.

This presentation utilizes the following data sources:

1) UNESCO Institute for Statistics data in the EdStats Query The presentation was created with the most recent UIS data release that

included 2009 data for most indicators and 2010 data for some countries. Indicators were calculated by UIS according to definitions available in the

EdStats Query. Regional averages created for the expenditure analysis in slide 15 include

all countries in the geographic region – both developing countries and high-income countries. Bermuda, Canada, and the United States are not included in any of the aggregates.

2) Income/Gender/Location Disparity slides were based on data and analysis extracted from:

Demographic and Health Surveys, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, and Living Standards Measurement Studies for 1985-2007; Reports were generated through ADePT Edu by Emilio Porta (2011).

Porta, Emilio, Gustavo Arcia, Kevin Macdonald, Sergiy Radyakin, and Misha Lokshin. 2011. Assessing Sector Performance and Inequality in Education. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Data Sources

The State of Education Series

The following State of Education presentations are available on the EdStats website:

Educational Levels: Pre-Primary Education Primary Education Secondary Education Tertiary Education

Topics: Access Quality Expenditures Literacy Equity Gender