Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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69. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of third level students who registered as students in universities and ITs during each of the past ten years; the number of these students who dropped out in the first semester during each of the past ten years in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28776/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I attach a list of the number of third level students who registered as students in universities and IT's during each of the past ten years. As regards the number of these students who dropped out in the first semester, this information is not available in my Department.

My officials have made contact with The Higher Education Authority (HEA) on this matter. The HEA do not measure the number of "drop outs" in the first semester. In 2010 the HEA published a report entitled "A Study of Progression in Irish Higher Education". The report looked at the proportions of new full-time undergraduate new entrants registered on March 1st 2008 (academic year 2007/08) that were not present in that institution on March 1st 2009 (academic year 2008/09). The report showed that 15% of all undergraduate new entrants were not present the following year. The report also noted that approximately 4% of students had already left their course by March 1st.

A follow up study was carried out by the HEA in 2013 which looked at the progression of full-time undergraduate new entrants on March 1st 2011 (2010/11 academic year) and followed their progression to March 1st 2012 (academic year 2011/12). The results show that 16% did not progress, an increase from 15% for the new entrant cohort in 2007/08. Improved progression was however noted in key skills areas such as Computing and Science.

The HEA have recently published an Annual System Performance report and a full set of higher education institutional profiles that are available on their website that contain a lot of interesting and useful information on our higher education system and may be of interest to you.