CAO to collect applicants’ background details in access study

IMPORTANT information on the backgrounds of college applicants is being collected for the first time this year to help widen access to third-level education.

For the past three years, colleges have supplied information to the Higher Education Authority on the social, economic and cultural backgrounds of students who enrol on courses to help identify the extra supports needed for school students and for those who do get into college.

State-funded institutions have been told that they must reach certain targets for numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, people with disabilities and mature students or risk losing public funding from next year.