STUDENTS ARE more likely to graduate with a first-class honours degree from Dublin City University than from any other Irish university, while well over half of Trinity College Dublin’s graduates since 2005 have left college with a 2.1 degree – the largest proportion of any university in the country.
An Irish Times survey of graduating grades handed out by Irish universities since 2005 has found that the proportions of first-class honours degrees, 2.1s and other grades can vary quite considerably from institution to institution.
DCU, for example, has awarded the highest proportion of first-class honours degrees, with an average of 19 per cent managing to score top marks over the seven years surveyed. An average of 16 per cent of students graduated with first-class honours from Irish universities over the same period.
NUI Galway and the University of Limerick awarded the lowest proportion of firsts over that time with 14 per cent of students making that grade.
The proportions of students graduating with upper second-class honours (2.1) degrees are much more variable. An average of 56 per cent of TCD graduates left college with a 2.1, while 51 per cent of UCC’s graduates achieved the same feat over the time period.
UL awarded the lowest proportion of 2.1s over that time – 36 per cent of UL graduates were awarded a 2.1 – a full 20 percentage points lower than TCD’s average. The national average was 47 per cent.
Some 49 per cent of graduates from UCD, Ireland’s largest university, left college with a 2.1 and DCU awarded a similar proportion of 2.1s over the seven years surveyed. NUI Maynooth was only slightly below the national average at 46 per cent, while 43 per cent of NUI Galway’s graduates left with a 2.1 degree.
The survey looked at graduating grades among undergraduates. Non-completions, failures and so on were not taken into account as the numbers are small.
Graduating grades are increasingly more important for the jobs market. A survey of graduate employers conducted by Gradireland.comand published earlier this year found that almost 60 per cent of those surveyed were expecting their applicants to have a 2.1 degree or higher. Two years ago, just 38 per cent of employers were looking for those kinds of grades.
Nationally, 26 per cent of graduates gained a 2.2 degree over the seven years. UL awarded the highest proportion of 2.2s with 35 per cent of graduates leaving with that grade.