Malaga University leads job placement in Andalucía: ranking of the degrees with the best prospects

With the university entrance exam results fresh in the press, the pre-registration period at Malaga University (UMA) began on Friday. For thousands of students, the time has come to make a decision that will shape their future.

While some are clear about what they want to do, others are facing doubts about which path to take. It's good to know the employment rates for different degree programmes.

The Andalusian institute of statistics and cartography (IECA) has just updated its statistics on employment of graduates from public universities.

The good news is that the UMA leads the regional ranking in employability: 61.5% of its undergraduate students are working a year after graduating. This significantly exceeds the regional average, which stands at 57.1%.

The UMA is closely followed by the University of Cadiz (60.1%) and the University of Seville (59.1%). At the other end are the Pablo de Olavide University (52.56%) and the University of Granada (52.35%), which have the lowest levels of employability in the first year after graduation.

These rates are the result of averaging all students, but they reveal significant differences between fields of study.

Engineering and architecture indisputably lead in job placement within a year of graduation, with 76.9% of students finding employment in the period. This is the Andalusian average, which the UMA surpasses with 78%.

Health sciences follows closely behind, with an Andalusian average of 71.5%. Malaga students fall slightly below this average at 70.8%.

The true differentiating of Malaga University lies in degrees that are traditionally more difficult to find employment in. In the field of social sciences and law, the regional employment rate is 52.8%, while the UMA leads by a significant margin with 59.4%.

The same happens in arts and humanities: compared to the Andalusian average of 34.7%, Malaga boasts the highest rate in the region at 40.8%. The only field in which it falls slightly below the average is in pure sciences, registering an employment rate of 43.8% compared to the regional average of 45.4%.

Malaga's strong economy and more dynamic job market may explain why its students find it easier to find employment after graduation than their peers in other Andalusian provinces. It can also be seen as an indicator that the degree programmes the UMA offers align with current labour market demands.

The employment rate for Andalusian graduates reaches 76% four years after graduating. It's important to note that some degrees typically require further training, as is the case with doctors and lawyers, preventing students from immediately entering the workforce. In other fields, access to the job market is also not immediate, as graduates primarily aim for civil service positions, such as teachers.

The statistics show how the employment rate of university graduates in Andalucía has been increasing practically year after year since 2013, with the exception of the drop the Covid-19 pandemic caused in 2020. In 2013, only 44% of students could boast of having found a job within a year of graduating, a percentage that now approaches 60%.

Students with technology degrees have the best job prospects: within a year of graduation, almost 81% are employed. The percentage approaches 89% four years after graduation, although it has decreased slightly compared to last year.

The health and social services field has the second highest employment rate, with 79.4% within a year of graduation and 87.4% after four years. Third is agriculture, livestock, fishing, forestry and veterinary medicine, with 76.4%, rising to 87.7% after four years.

Also above average are degrees in mechanical engineering, electronics and other technical training, as well as industry and construction with 75.1% (87% after four years).

The remaining degrees start with lower employment rates, but after four years, the percentages improve significantly. For example, the natural sciences, chemistry, physics and mathematics field begins with an employability rate of 44.6% in the first year, but experiences a dramatic increase to 76% by the fourth year.

Graduates in education degrees see their employment rate rise from 48.1% to 69.3%, and the social sciences, journalism and documentation field improves from 39.67% to 71.43% after four years.

Finally, the arts, humanities and languages field, which has the lowest employability rate in the first year at 35.7%, gradually recovers to reach a 61.2% employment rate by the fourth year in the labor market.

Looking at the specific degrees, health and technical disciplines monopolise the highest employability figures. The field of forestry leads the way with an outstanding placement rate of 91.7% one year after graduation, followed by three health-related degrees: medical diagnostic and treatment technology (88.6%), nursing (87.8%) and medicine (85.9%), along with industry-related engineering degrees such as electrical and energy engineering (85.14%).

As for employment rates four years after graduation, medicine is at the top, with a 95.4% job placement rate. The ranking continues with agricultural production and livestock farming (95.38%), mining and extraction (91.70%) and forestry (89.74%). Right behind them are technology degrees with percentages exceeding 88%.

On the other hand, humanities and certain pure sciences face a much more challenging initial job market. The degrees with the lowest employment rates in the first year after graduation are philosophy and ethics, with only 26% of students finding work; other life sciences (27.8%), biology (29.15%) and literature and linguistics (29.22%).

Although the situation generally improves over time, four years after leaving university some of the aforementioned degrees continue to register the most modest employability figures: this is the case of other language studies, with 39%; music and performing arts (52.1%); and fine arts (56.5%).