Cyprus recorded the highest share of women in master’s programs and the second-highest share in doctoral studies within the European Union in 2022, according to data released by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.

Specifically, out of 9,359 postgraduate students (Master’s or equivalent) in Cyprus in 2022, 6,948 were women, accounting for 74.2% of the total. This was the highest percentage among EU member states, followed by Poland (67.3%) and Lithuania (66.1%).

At the EU level, women comprised 58.6% of all master’s students (905,678 out of 1.5 million students). In postgraduate education, women were the majority in all EU countries except Luxembourg, where there was gender parity (49.8%).

In PhD programs in Cyprus, 83 out of 143 doctoral candidates were women, representing 58.0% of the total. This was the second-highest percentage in the EU, following Latvia (59.6%) and ahead of Lithuania (57.4%).

Across the EU, the proportion of women in doctoral studies stood at 48.5%, with 48,079 female doctoral students out of a total of 99,204. Even the lowest shares in the EU remained relatively high: 42.3% in Luxembourg, 43.3% in Austria, and 44.1% in the Czech Republic.

Between 2013 and 2022, the share of women in postgraduate studies at the EU level declined slightly by 0.4 percentage points due to decreases in 12 countries. The largest drops were recorded in Latvia (-3.4 percentage points) and Hungary (-3.6 percentage points), while smaller declines were observed in Slovenia (-0.1 percentage points) and Poland, Malta, and the Czech Republic (-0.3 percentage points each).

Conversely, during the same period, the share of women in PhD programs increased by 1.0 percentage point, with 19 EU countries registering an increase in female doctoral students. The most significant growth was observed in Cyprus, where the proportion of women in PhD programs rose by 8.0 percentage points between 2013 and 2022.

In 2022, women represented the majority of students in education, both at the postgraduate (75.6%) and doctoral levels (66.9%).

For master’s programs, the highest shares of women were recorded in:

• General programs and qualifications (73.7%)
• Arts and humanities (69.5%)
• Social sciences, journalism, and information studies (68.7%)

For doctoral studies, after education, the most popular fields for women were:

• Health and welfare (60.9%)
• Agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and veterinary sciences (57.5%)
• Social sciences, journalism, and information studies (57.3%)
• Arts and humanities (53.3%)

However, women remained underrepresented in STEM-related fields at both levels.

• In information and communication technologies (ICT), women accounted for only 26.2% of master’s students and 22.6% of PhD candidates.
• In engineering, manufacturing, and construction, the percentages were 33.4% in master’s programs and 32.7% in doctoral studies.