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A rise in the number of first-year female students in Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Engineering (MINT) has been noticed across higher education institutions in Germany during the first semester of 2022, Destatis reveals.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, women, who are less likely to decide to study a STEM subject, are seeing a surge among first-year students, increasing from 31.2 per cent in 2012 to 35 per cent two decades year later, Studying-in-Germany.org reports.

This means that the number of women first-year students in 2022 was 106,976 compared to 198,177 male counterparts.

The highest proportion of women in 2022 was enrolled in interior design (87 per cent) and the lowest in automotive technology (eight per cent), while computer science, a field traditionally underrepresented by women, had a share of 23 per cent of first-year students that were women.

Regardless of their subject of study, women continue to be more resilient in starting a course of study; around 52 per cent of all first-year students in 2022 were women.

MINT Subjects Are Being Less Sought After By Students in 2022

While the overall number of new students in MINT subjects experienced a slight decline of 0.6 per cent in the 2022 academic year, the drop was less pronounced than the 2.4 per cent decrease in first-year students across all disciplines. This means that the interest of students in pursuing academic studies has dropped.

Consequently, the proportion of students choosing MINT subjects in the first semester reached 38.3 per cent in 2022 compared to 37.7 per cent in the previous year. In general, 305,200 first-year students chose a MINT subject in the first semester.

According to Destatis, MINT subjects have been steadily declining since 2018, with 351,400 students choosing such subjects in their first semester in the 2017 academic year.

Vocational Training for IT Specialists Up by 70% Compared to A Decade Ago

As per vocational training, the number of newly concluded training contracts in this profession has surged by 70 per cent, from 10,300 in 2012 to 17,600 in 2022. This makes IT specialist training one of the most popular vocational qualifications in the country.

Overall, vocational training was in fifth place in 2022, second for men and 24th for women, who continue to be underrepresented in this field. However, the proportion of women in the field has increased from 8.8 per cent in 2021 to 9.3 per cent in 2022.

In 2022, a total of 44,400 students were training for IT specialist professions across all years, reflecting an increase from 26,000 trainees in 2012.

>> Number of Students in Germany Drops For 2nd Year in a Row

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