Who Went to College in 2004? A National Survey of New Entrants to Higher Education

March 02, 2006

News

02/03/2006

 

Who Went to College in 2004? A National Survey of New Entrants to Higher Education

By Philip O’Connell (ESRI), David Clancy (Fitzpatrick Associates) and Selina McCoy (ESRI). Published by The Higher Education Authority.

Embargo 12 Noon Thursday 2 March 2006



The overall admission rate in higher education in Ireland has increased by an impressive 11% since 1998 and now lies at 55% of the relevant age cohort (17-19 year olds). This improvement has been shared by the various socio-economic groups with the rate for the Skilled Manual Group almost doubling to a range of 50-60% compared to 32% in 1998. The Semi and Unskilled Socio-Economic Group has improved from 23% to between 33-40% over the same period (Table 3.8). At 71%, Sligo is the county with the highest rate of admission to higher education and there has been a 13 percentage point increase in the rate of admission for Dublin (Table 5.4). Seven out of every 10 (68.3%) of those who sat the Leaving Certificate entered some form of higher education (Table 4.4a).



These findings are contained in the HEA commissioned report (the fifth in the series) “Who Went to College in 2004? A National Survey of New Entrants to Higher Education” by Philip O’Connell and Selina McCoy of the ESRI and David Clancy of Fitzpatrick Associates. When entrants to higher education institutions in Northern Ireland are included, this figure reaches 56% rising to close to 60% when entrants to Colleges in Great Britain are added.



HEA Chairman Michael Kelly comments “This rise in participation is truly remarkable. In the space of a generation, participation has gone from 20% in 1980 to nearly three times that figure in 2004. Impressive progress has been made towards meeting targets set by the Government following the publication of the McNamara Report on Access in 2001 most notably the target for the unskilled group of 33% by 2006 has been surpassed – it is now between 33-40%; the number of mature entrants at 9.4% has almost reached the target of 10% set for 2006.”



Mr Kelly added “ This shows that successive Government investments in higher education are paying off, and more and more parents and students see the benefits of pursuing a higher education. We should also not forget that a substantial number of other students enroll in Further Education Colleges. Irish young people and other learners now have access to a range of educational and training opportunities that hitherto were not available in this country. ”



As in previous reports, counties along the western side of the country all enjoy high rates of admission (Table 5.6) to higher education with Sligo at 70.5% enjoying the highest rate followed by Galway (67.4%), Kerry (67%) and Mayo (66.8%). When account is taken of enrolments to Northern Ireland colleges, the admission rate for Donegal goes from 46.3% to 60.2% while Monaghan’s rate goes up from 44.5% to 57.6%.



In relation to Dublin, there has been significant progress with eight postal districts having a rate above the national average compared to six in 1998. Dublin 1 (North Inner City) has gone up from 8.9% to 22.8%; Dublin 2 (South Inner City) up from 19.5% to 29.5%; Dublin 24 (Tallaght, Firhouse) up from 26.1% to 40%; and Dublin 17 (Priorswood, Darndale) up from 8.4% to 16.7%. Dublin 14 (Rathfarnham, Dundrum, Clonskeagh) at 86.5% has the highest rate of admission with Dublin 10 (Ballyfermot) at 11.7% having the lowest rate.



The report notes (Table 3.7) that the Higher Professional and Farmers Socio-Economic groups accounted for a greater share of new entrants than their share of the population. The Employer and Manager; Lower Professional, Skilled Manual and Own Account groups are roughly equal to their share of the population. However, semi-skilled and unskilled manual groups, as well as the other non-manual group account for a smaller share of new entrants than their share of the population.



Michael Kelly adds “while imbalances in participation remain in certain categories, the HEA is working closely with the universities, in particular, who fall within our funding remit to tackle these issues. This year, we have introduced a new funding model for the universities which gives additional support to cover the extra costs associated with access students as part of the core university budget. The recently announced Strategic Innovation Fund will provide further assistance in this area and through the HEA’s National Access Office – a range of initiatives are already being implemented.”





Notes for the Editor



This is the fifth national report in the series which began in 1982 based on the 1980 intake. The first four reports were compiled by Professor Patrick Clancy of UCD and have frequently been referred to as the “Clancy Reports”.



The current report relates to first-time entry to higher education in 2004. The estimated number of new entrants that year was 36,051. The response rate to the survey drawn from entrants to 39 institutions was 42%.



It is important to be clear on the distinction between admission rates and participation ratios. These can be defined as follows:

 

 

  • admission rate: the admission rate to higher education is the flow of new entrants to higher education divided by the single years of age from which more than seventy-five per cent of the new entrants come;
  • participation ratio: a participation ratio is the ratio of the share of a group with a particular attribute (in this case the share of new entrants to higher education from different social backgrounds) to the share of that group in the total population (in the case a comparison group of the population with different social backgrounds). A participation ratio in excess of one indicates that a group has a higher share of an attribute than would be expected on the basis of that group’s share of the population. A ratio of less than one indicates that a group has a lower share of an attribute than would be expected on the basis of that group’s share of the population.
  • Participation rate: the participation rate is the participation ratio multiplied by the overall admission rate and can be used to indicate the relative chances of entry of different social groups (with differing participation ratios). It should be noted that the participation rate is not upper bounded by one since new entrants can be of any age (including mature students) while the admission rate is based on the population age group from which 75% of new entrants are drawn (17-19 in 2004).