The tertiary education sector in Mauritius is fast developing with the participation of an increasing number of students and institutions within the Tertiary Education landscape. In 2009/2010, the sector maintained its dynamism and performed satisfactorily on a number of counts as shown below.

Institutions

A total of 61 institutions are presently in operation including 50 private ones and 11 publicly-funded. The publicly-funded tertiary sector comprise seven institutions operating under the purview of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) , namely, the University of Mauritius (UoM), the University of Technology, Mauritius (UTM), the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE), the Mahatma Gandhi Institute (MGI), the Mauritius College of the Air (MCA), the Rabindranath Tagore Institute (RTI) and the Fashion and Design Institute (FDI). Two polytechnics, namely the Swami Dayanand Institute of Management (SDIM) and the Institut Superieur de Technologie (IST) as well as the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development (MITD) formerly known as the IVTB, the Mauritius Institute of Health (MIH) and the Fashion and Design Institute (FDI) also delivered programmes at the tertiary level.

Programmes

Some 650 programmes are being run locally in 2009/10, compared with 560 a year earlier, of which about 40% was offered on a full-time basis. The PFIs offered some 380 programmes and private/distance education providers, 270 programmes. About 1 in 4 courses was at Postgraduate level and 40% at Degree level.

Staff

The sector employed a total of some 2,600 persons on a full-time basis, of which around 400 were working in private institutions. Overall, 30% of the employees were in the academic, 35% in the administrative, 15% in the technical/paraprofessional and 15% in the services/maintenance cadres. The number of employees in the publicly funded institutions stood at around 2,200 persons.

Enrolment

The tertiary student population in 2009/2010 is estimated around 42,260 as compared with 38,623 in 2008/09. This represents an increase of 9.5% in tertiary enrolment. A total of 30,267 students (72%) were pursuing their higher studies locally: 19,867 (47%) attended publicly-funded institutions (PFIs) and 10,400 (25%) students were studying in a private institution or through the distance education mode directly with an overseas institution. Some 12,000 (28%) students, on the other hand, were studying abroad. The Gross Tertiary Enrolment Rate, which measures the total tertiary enrolment as a percentage of the population aged 20 to 24 years is estimated at 45 % in 2009/10, up from 41.4% in 2008/09, which represented an increase of 3.6 percentage points.

Enrolment in the PFI’s is distributed as follows : University of Mauritius(excluding joint MIE and MGI enrolment- 9663 (22.9%), University of Technology, Mauritius- 3,018 (7.1%), Mauritius Institute of Education- 4,738 (11.2%), Mahatma Gandhi Institute/ Rabindranath Tagore Institute – 638 (1.5%), Mauritius College of the Air– 452 (1.1%), Swami Dayanand Institute of Management- 572 (1.4%), Institut Superieur de Technologie– 263 (0.6%), Industrial and Vocational Board-466 (1.1%), Mauritius Institute of Health – 46 (0.1%) and the Fashion and Design Institute- 11 (0.02%).

Overall, around 12% students were doing a Postgraduate programme, 55% a Bachelor degree, 28% a diploma, 4% a certificate and 1% a Foundation programme or equivalent in Publicly Funded Institutions.

Research

Research at the tertiary level is concentrated within the UoM, although research activities at the UTM are slowly taking off. The total number of research students within these 2 institutions, taken together, stands at 205 in 2009/10 compared with 219 a year earlier, or a decrease of 14 students. Some 70 students were enrolled for a PhD, 123 for an MPhil and 12 for a Masters in Research (MRes). The MPhil/PhD researches were in the fields of Agriculture- 18; Engineering–52; Law & Management–38; Science–46; and Social Studies & Humanities–39. It is worth noting that some 65 MPhil/PhD students are benefiting from the TEC MPhil/PhD Research and Related Support Schemes.

Output

A total of 5,730 awards were made by the PFIs in 2008, including 366 Masters Degrees and 1,571 Bachelor Degrees. The UoM conferred 1,940 awards compared with 446 for the UTM, 2,393 for the MIE, 191 for the MGI, 103 for the MCA, 229 for the SDIM, 84 for the IST, 138 for the IVTB and 206 for the MIH. A total of 1,386 students graduated in a Science and Technology Related field of which 440 in Information Technology, 309 in Medical and Health related subjects and 255 in Engineering. A high number of graduates, on the other hand, were in the field of education (2,424), Administration/Management (668), as well as Arts/Languages/ Humanities (410)