Almost one quarter of students graduated with first-class honours last year

There was a small increase in the proportion of students in Ireland graduating with a first-class honours degree this year.

Data from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) show that 23.5 per cent of graduating students earned the highest degree award, compared with 20.9 per cent among the class of 2021. In 2015, 15.9 per cent of students graduated with a first.

The HEA statistics show that the overall student population increased by 0.3 per cent to 246,300 in the 2021-2022 academic year.

The gender gap continued to widen, with females accounting for 54.5 per cent of the student body last year. In 2015-2016, females accounted for 51.4 per cent higher level students.

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International students made up 12.4 per cent of people in Ireland’s higher education system, up from 10.3 per cent the year before. The US accounted for the highest proportion of this total (14.8 per cent) ahead of India and China. China was the most common origin country of international students a year earlier at 13.5 per cent followed by students from the United Kingdom and India.

Nearly two-thirds of students (61.6 per cent) were studying for honours degrees, while 11.3 per cent were studying a taught masters.

Ordinary degrees are steadily declining, according to the HEA figures, with 6.8 per cent of students on such courses in the last academic year, compared with 11.3 per cent of people studying in 2015-2016.

Business, administration and law remained the most popular subjects, with 20.6 per cent of students enrolled in these courses. Health and welfare programmes were being studied by 17.5 per cent of students.