Prepared by the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti), the report compiles, organizes, and evaluates data on ICT academic programs based on the Ministry of Education and Culture’s 2021 Statistical Yearbook of Education.
During the period analyzed by Cuti, there were 4,683 new enrollments (that is, people who registered to begin a specific program for the first time) in ICT courses nationwide.
Across all levels (vocational programs, undergraduate, and graduate programs), ORT ranks first among private universities and is also the top-ranked institution in the country for technical programmes.
Technical degrees
Nearly half of the revenue from technical education in ICT (46%) was generated by Universidad ORT Uruguay.
According to the Cuti report, ORT “is the educational institution that offers the most degree programs at this level, with a total of 16. Among them, as in the previous year, the programs with the highest enrolment were Information Technology Analyst (with 294 new students) and Programmer Analyst (with 195).”
Next, the University of the Republic (Udelar) accounted for 19% of enrolment, the University of the Enterprise (UDE) for 18%, and the Technological University of Uruguay (UTEC) for 13%. The remaining institutions recorded substantially lower percentages.
Undergraduate programs
Udelar was the educational institution with the highest number of new students (54%), while ORT came in second (24%).
Universidad ORT Uruguay the educational institution that offers the largest number of undergraduate degrees related to ICT, with a total of 13 programs,” the report notes.
The country's other institutions each account for less than 10%: UTEC and UM (7%) and UCU and UDE (4%) each, approximately.
Postgraduate Degrees
The University of the Republic leads in postgraduate education in terms of enrollment, accounting for 52% of the total.
Second, ORT accounts for 22% of revenue, followed by UTEC with 14% and CLAEH with 9%.
The remaining institutions account for less than 5% combined.
Gender gap
In terms of the gender breakdown of admissions, the number of male students far exceeds that of female students. Seventy-one percent of the students admitted were male, and the remaining 29% were female.
“This situation demonstrates that the gender gap persists in ICT education, given that this trend is reversed when considering the gender distribution in higher education overall,” Cuti notes in his report.
“On the other hand, this gap is consistent with the gender distribution in IT sector employment and, as a result, highlights the challenge of bringing more women into the workforce,” he adds.
Prospective Students
The Cuti report indicates that there is a potential pool of 16,240 upper secondary students (EMS) in fields related to ICT, which is 1,477 more than the number identified in 2020. As in the previous year, these students account for 12% of the total number of upper secondary students.
This group of students is considered a “potential pool” for enrollment in specialized ICT training in the coming years and, furthermore, for supplying talent to the information and communications technology sector.