Education and Training Monitor 2025

Main indicators areas

Tertiary education

“The share of 25–34-year-olds with tertiary educational attainment should be at least 45% by 2030.”

“The share of tertiary graduates with a learning mobility experience abroad should be at least 23% by 2030.”

“By 2030, the annual number of learners from outside the EU coming to study and obtain a degree at tertiary level in the EU should be at least 350 000.”

Main indicator

Tertiary educational attainment, measuring the share of the population aged 25-34 having completed a short-cycle tertiary, bachelor, master, doctoral or equivalent level of education. Eurostat (EU Labour Force Survey) [edat_lfse_03]
Learning mobility in tertiary education, measuring the share of degree- and credit- mobile graduates (credit mobility of a minimum duration of three months or representing at least 15 ECTS credits throughout the cycle of study) by level of education. Eurostat (UOE joint data collection)
Graduates from outside the EU, measuring the number of degree-mobile graduates in tertiary education with origin in a non-EU country. Eurostat (UOE joint data collection) [educ_uoe_mobg02]

A closer look

The main indicator on tertiary educational attainment can be broken down by sex, degree of urbanisation, country of birth, region and limitations due to health problems. A special extraction was done for a closer look at own and parental country of birth (EU average only). Data from 2021 are broken down by parental education (EU average only). Source: Eurostat (EU Labour Force Survey) [edat_lfse_03,edat_lfs_9913, edat_lfs_9912, edat_lfse_04, edat_lfs_9920]

Similar indicators

Entry flows, measuring new entrants to tertiary education. The indicator can be broken down by sex and fields of education. Source: Eurostat (UOE joint data collection) [educ_uoe_ent01]”
Enrolment, measuring students enrolled in tertiary education. The indicator can be broken down by sex and fields of education. Source: Eurostat (UOE joint data collection) [educ_uoe_enrt02]”
Graduates, measuring graduates from tertiary education. The indicator can be broken down by sex and fields of education. Source: Eurostat (UOE joint data collection) [educ_uoe_grad01]
Completion and drop-out rate,measuring the share of entrants to tertiary education by their status after a given number of years. Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2025
Graduates with credit mobility by country of destination. Source: Eurostat (UOE joint data collection) [educ_uoe_mobc02]
Graduates with credit mobility by type of mobility scheme. Source: Eurostat (UOE joint data collection) [educ_uoe_mobc01]”
Relative international attractiveness of EU education systems, measuring the number of degree-mobile graduates with origin in a non-EU country per 1 000 graduates by level of education. Source: Eurostat (UOE joint data collection) [educ_uoe_mobg02, educ_uoe_grad01]

Context

Access to tertiary education, measuring the share of population aged 25 to 44 who entered tertiary education by parental education.OECD Survey of Adult Skills 2023
Labour status, the distribution of the population aged 25 to 34 with tertiary level attainment by labour status.Eurostat (EU Labour Force Survey) [edat_lfs_9902]
Earnings advantage of tertiary educated workers, measuring the mean hourly earnings of employees by educational attainment. Source: Eurostat (Structure of earnings survey) [earn_ses22_16]
Employment advantage, measuring the employment rate of the working age population by educational attainment and the unemployment rate of population aged 25 to 34 by educational attainment.Source: Eurostat (EU Labour Force Survey) [lfsi_educ_a]
Distribution of incoming degree-mobile graduates by region of origin. Eurostat (UOE joint data collection) [educ_uoe_mobg02]

Policy response

Measures for policies for tackling gender equity issues in higher education.
Admissions policy in a lifelong learning framework.

GO TO 2025 EURYDICE system-level indicators on higher education and STEM

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