In the 2021/2022 academic year, second cycle, business, administration and law were the most popular specialties (42.8% of those admitted to the second cycle), being followed by education (19.3%), says a report by the National Bureau of Statistics that is quoted by IPN. The data show the tendencies of the previous years persist. In the first cycle, business, administration and law also remained the most attractive ones (40.4% of those admitted to the first cycle), being followed by education (13.2%) and engineering, processing technologies, architecture and building (11.0%). Compared with the 2020/21 academic year, in the 2021/2022 year the number of students admitted to social science, journalism and public relations grew by 1.6 percentage points.

The biggest differences compared with the 2020/21 academic year were seen in such areas as: services (down 1.2 p.p.), business, administration and law (down 0.9 p.p.), ICT (up 0.8 p.p.), education (up 0.7 p.p.).

In the 2021/22 year of study, 14,700 students were admitted to the first cycle of higher education (down 5.2% on 2020/21), while 5,900 students were admitted to the second cycle (down 1.7% on 2020/21). Compared with 2020/21, the number of students enrolled at all the programs of study decreased, except for master’s degree studies. In public higher education institutions, the first cycle, there were admitted 12,400 students, about 63% of whom on a contract basis.

Moldova has 24 universities, 16 of which are public, while 8 are private (as the previous year). Most of the higher education establishments are based in the municipality of Chisinau – 20. By one university is situated in Bălți, Cahul, Comrat and Taraclia.

At the start of the 2021/22 academic year, higher education embraced 59,700 students, a 1.2% decrease compared with a year before. The female students represented 58.8%. The students in full-time education constituted 62.6%, while those in part-time education – 37.4%. About 50,200 students attend public universities.