Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - On average, it took men significantly longer than women to complete their studies in the 2021 examination year. With the bachelor's degree, the difference was almost one semester, as Information and Technology NRW (IT.NRW) announced on Thursday. On average, women completed their degree after 8.3 semesters and men after 9.2 semesters. For the Master's it was 5.7 semesters and 6.0 semesters respectively. All in all, after an interim low at the beginning of the corona pandemic, more people in NRW obtained a university degree again last year.

In the 2021 examination year, 114,407 graduates graduated from universities in NRW. The number was 7 percent higher than in the previous year (2020: 106,919) and was also above the level of 2019 (110,687). The increase of 10.7 percent among bachelor graduates is primarily responsible for the increase. In 2021, there was a lower increase of 2.2 percent in the Master’s degree compared to the previous year. According to IT.NRW, 53.6 percent of graduates in 2021 were women.

On average, the graduates of the 2021 examination year needed longer to complete their studies than those of the previous year: the average duration increased from 8.5 to 8.7 semesters for the bachelor's degree and from 5.8 to 5.9 semesters for the master's degree. The duration has thus steadily increased over the past five years. Graduates who graduated in 2017 needed an average of 8.3 semesters for their bachelor's degree and 5.5 semesters for their master's degree.