Young people in the Republic are more likely to go into third-level education after leaving school than their Northern counterparts.
Between 1987 and 1998, the number of students from the Republic enrolling in undergraduate courses increased by 72 per cent, while in the North numbers more than doubled.
A higher proportion of Northern undergraduates are part-time, however, with 17,224 such enrolments in 1997/ 1998 compared to 4,862 part-time enrolments in the Republic in the same year.