Munster feeder school rankings reveals dominance of fee-paying schools in Cork
Munster’s top feeder school by percentage of students progressing to college was Cork College of Commerce (Cork). Photo: Dan Linehan
Analysis by the has revealed the top ranking feeder schools in Munster, and particularly in the case of UCC, the dominance of fee-paying feeder schools.
Data obtained by the Irish Examiner shows the school of origin of third-level students who enrolled in each of the 24 publicly-funded third-level institutions in Ireland in 2021, how many students from the Republic of Ireland went on to Northern Ireland’s two universities, and how many students attend the two largest fee-paying colleges in the State: Griffith College and Dublin Business School.
Munster’s top three feeder schools by percentage of students progressing to college were Cork College of Commerce (Cork), An Scoil Idirmheanach, Cill Orglan (Kerry), and Scoil Mhuire, Beal Athan Ghaorthaidh (Cork).
Munster’s top three feeder schools in terms of the absolute number of students who went on to college were Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig (Cork), Coláiste Fhlannain, Inis (Clare) and Castletroy Community College, Newtown (Limerick).
“Schools work very hard to ensure that their students succeed, and that includes progression to third level, but it is important that we bear in mind, and indeed highlight that achievement is much broader than that and that schools and their students' success cannot be measured on these terms alone,” said Sinn Féin spokesperson on Education & Skills, and Cork South Central TD, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire.
In terms of the number of students enrolled in 2021, the top Munster feeder schools for UL were Castletroy Community College, Newtown (Limerick), Crescent College Comprehensive, Dooradoyle, (Limerick) and Ardscoil Rís, (Limerick).
For MTU, the top three feeder schools were Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig (Cork), Carrigaline Community School, Carrigaline (Cork) and Mercy Secondary School, Tralee (Kerry).
WIT’s top three feeder schools were Ard Scoil Na Mara, Tramore (Waterford), Coláiste De La Salle, Newtown Rd, (Waterford), and Abbey Community College, Ferrybank (Waterford).
The top three feeder schools for UCC were Christians Brothers College, Sydney Hill (Cork) Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig, (Cork) and Presentation College, Mardyke, (Cork).
While in the case of UL, MTU and WIT, the top rankings did not feature fee-paying schools, two of the top three schools feeding into UCC (Christian Brothers College and Presentation College) are fee-paying, male-only schools.
Commenting on this dominance of fee-paying schools, Deputy Ó Laoghaire acknowledged that the education system has “disadvantages built into it from the start”.
“We know that students from fee-paying schools are overrepresented in third level compared to the rest of society. This is not the fault of the students themselves, who have worked hard, but there is a systemic problem here.
"Access to third level varies wildly between some of the top fee-paying schools and non-fee-paying schools, especially in disadvantaged areas. It is a priority for me in education that we tackle this disparity and inequality,” he said.
The data accounts for all students who ever attended a school in the Republic of Ireland, who started in an Irish third-level this academic year, so approximately 22% of students listed are mature students or students who deferred or repeated.
The list does not include students who went on to further education (PLC courses) or apprenticeships; where students from “grind schools” which are run without State support (such as Bruce College Cork, Hewitt College, or the Institute of Education) went to college; or how many students went to college abroad.
