To make sense of the feeder tables, it is important to understand the component parts. There are two key numbers associated with each school listed: the total number of students who secured a first-year undergraduate place in college this year and the total number of Leaving Cert students who sat the exam in 2024.
It is also important to note that the percentage progression rates of Ireland’s second level schools do not solely reflect the success of this year’s Leaving Cert class in securing college places through the Central Applications Office (CAO).
In the numbers provided to The Irish Times, each third level institution includes all incoming first-year students who attended a given school, without identifying in what year they sat the Leaving Cert.
The CAO is precluded from stating how many students from the current Leaving Cert class of 2024 secured a place this year by the school they attended.
What can we understand about the makeup of this year’s cohort of school leavers and incoming first-year undergraduate students?
Data provided by The State Exams Commission (SEC) shows that 54,260 students in registered schools sat the Leaving Cert in 2024. CAO data, on the other hand, shows that 58,352 students who applied for a college place this year sat the Leaving Cert in 2024.
That would suggest that 4,092 candidates sat the exam outside of a recognised school. The vast majority of these students are likely to have studied for the Leaving Cert in a full-time grind school.
These students are always included in the numbers attributed to individual schools because they will have attended a second level school up to at least the end of the Junior Cycle.
To understand the make-up of each year’s cohort of incoming first-year students, it is worth looking at the 51,534 students who, according to CAO figures, accepted a college place this year.
Of those, 43,455 are identified by Irish third level colleges as being pupils, at some stage, of schools recognised by the Department of Education.
The balance of 8,079 (15.67 per cent) who secured an offer through the CAO application process undertook their second level schooling outside of the Republic of Ireland.
* The 2024 intake includes 3,849 successful Round A applicants who secured places in in early July, who were not current year Leaving Cert applicants and were composed mainly of those mature applicants over 23 years of age.
* A total of 7,904 prospective students, who were not current year Leaving Cert applicants, had secured their place by the end of Round 0 in early August. This figure includes graduates of FE level 5/6 awards.
* Published CAO figures show that 47,268 current-year Leaving Cert candidates applied for third level places in 2024.
Allowing for the fact that some of the entrants from outside of Ireland may be school leavers from previous years, we estimate that in the region of 14,000-15,000 of the 51,534 incoming undergraduate students in 2024 did not sit the Leaving Cert in June 2024.
The percentage of progression listed in the last column is therefore not a “true rate” for the progression of the Leaving Cert 2024 class from each school to college this year as it incorporates those who sat the exam in previous years.
That leaves us with around 35,000 current-year Leaving Cert students entering college in 2024.
Out of the 43,455 who secured a place at third level, some 80 per cent were current year Leaving Cert students, and the rest are either previous years or are from abroad.
Class of 2024 who progressed through the CAO
CAO figures show that the total number of students sitting the Leaving Cert in 2024 who applied for a place this year was 47,268.
Data provided by the SEC to The Irish Times shows that a total of 54,260 students sat the Leaving Cert in 2024.
The data also allows the publication of the Sits number next to each school’s name. Combining this data from the CAO and SEC shows that 87 per cent of sixth-year students sitting the traditional Leaving Cert in Irish second level schools sought a place among the institutions it represents. A further 3,000-plus students sit the Leaving Cert Applied each year.
Therefore some 13 per cent of this year’s Leaving Cert class decided – in consultation with their teachers, guidance counsellors and, most importantly, their parents – that applying to the CAO was not the appropriate or best career development move for them.
As access to accurate data for application numbers to the CAO from the individual schools themselves is not possible, The Irish Times includes this cohort in the Sits numbers, upon which the success percentage of each school is based.
It is worth noting that the fact that some school-leavers do not apply for a CAO college place is not an indication of failure. They may be planning to pursue a further education course, through an ETB college, which is more appropriate to their career goals.
Every year, thousands of Leaving Cert students take these level 5 QQI courses in post-Leaving Cert colleges.
Many complete them and progress to CAO courses the following year (and are credited back to their original school in the data supplied by the colleges when they register).
In recent years, a growing number of Irish students have opted to study in continental European universities, which offer courses through the medium of English.
Some of those who do not apply for a CAO place may be going abroad to continue their studies. They may also have applied to colleges in Northern Ireland or to colleges in the UK. In the past 12 years, a growing number of Irish students have opted to study in continental EU universities with high international rankings, which offer courses through English.
There are more than 2,000 undergraduate Irish students now studying at undergraduate level in Dutch universities alone. Many more attend colleges in other EU countries.
Again, these students are not credited to their schools for progression to third-level status in The Irish Times charts as we do not have any data on such students.
Factors influencing college choice
Each year, the tables show very large numbers of students who go to college have attended schools in socially advantaged communities.
The data shows these students tend to opt predominantly for universities and teacher-training courses.
Higher Education Authority (HEA) data show these institutions have the lowest dropout rates (from 4 per cent in teacher-training colleges to 9 per cent in universities).
The HEA data also shows students from schools in less-advantaged communities take far fewer places in traditional universities.
Instead, many will progress to institutes of technology or the newly constituted technological universities. HEA data shows dropout rates of up to 20 per cent for some courses.
Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) figures show a large proportion of successful grant applicants go to technological universities rather than traditional ones, confirming the social-class divide reflected in institutions’ student intake.
The progression tables also show how parochial our college choice is.
They also indicate how the presence of a third level college in a given geographical area increases the progression rates of students from second level to third level within commuting distance of those colleges.
Unlike in the UK, where students tend to choose to study away from home, Irish students tend to gravitate towards local colleges if they can get a place in the discipline they want.
Publishing this data is not passing judgment on the success of any school in supporting their students to get to college.
For schools where both parents of many students are graduates, and where they have been supported throughout their education, getting a college place is no great reflection on the success of their school.
Alternatively, we are keenly aware that for schools in disadvantaged communities, securing third level progression for even a small proportion of students reflects highly motivated teachers and is a fantastic achievement.
McManus scholarship programme
One of the most interesting pieces of data relating to schools’ success in supporting students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds throughout the entire island of Ireland can be seen in the JP McManus scholarship awards.
The awards, established in 2008 and worth ¤6,700 a year to each student, are given annually to some of Ireland’s best-performing students for the duration of their undergraduate degrees, and offer a lifeline to current sixth-year students who fear their families will never be able to afford the exorbitant costs now associated with attending third level.
There is no application process, but qualifying students must attend a non-fee paying school, be in receipt of a Susi grant and must also be sitting the Leaving Certificate for the first time.
A total of 125 all-Ireland scholarships from the 32 counties are awarded annually.
Over the past 15 years more than 1,400 successful graduates have already qualified with primary and postgraduate degrees under the scheme.
Why does The Irish Times publish these charts given the caveats?
The Irish Times publishes these progression charts annually because they are based on data provided by the State Examinations Commission – total number of Sits per school, and data provided by the third level CAO colleges – the total number of former pupils of each school attending first year in 2024.
Third level institutions point out that the data they provide originates with the SEC.
It is provided for particular administrative purposes, and they say they cannot stand over the accuracy of the data if it is used for any other purpose.
The data includes every school setting in which a candidate sat an examination and in cases where an exam was repeated, a candidate could be counted twice.
Even if the information supplied to us could be more comprehensive, these charts are the only indicator of a school’s academic performance available to the public.
Third-level colleges point out that this school’s data originates at the State Examinations Commission.
It is forwarded to the Central Applications Office, which forwards it to third-level institutions. As the data is provided to each university for particular administrative purposes, they say they cannot stand over the accuracy of the data if it is used for any other purpose. The data provided includes every school setting in which a candidate sat the examination, even if for only one subject.
Therefore, the data will not always reflect the number of incoming students to a third-level college, because in cases where, for example, a candidate sat the examination twice, that candidate will appear as a statistic under both institutions and be doubly entered in the data.
The double counting occurs even where the candidate repeated the examination in the institution where he or she first undertook the examination.
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- This article and associated tables have updated to correct errors in data originally supplied by UCD and UCC
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