Third-level drop-out rate: Alarm sounded

THE high drop-out rates in some of the country’s third-level courses are unacceptable and symptomatic of a system that needs to be reviewed. It also suggests that our ambitions for students seem too focussed on third-level options and puts pressure on students who may be out of their depth.

The figures are startling and place a huge strain on a sector struggling to maintain services with inadequte funding. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) reports that 6,414 students — 16% of the first-year intake — quit in 2014. Institutes of technology were worst hit, with drop-out rates of 89% at Limerick IT’s Pharmaceutical and forensic analysis course and 80% for IT Tralee’s Computing with Games Development.

This serves no one well — the students, the institutions, the academics trying to deliver top level courses, the society that picks up the bill for these educational misadventures or the integrity of our third-level qualifications. Combined with a recent OECD report that found that 20% of third-level graduates were barely literate or numerate this suggests urgent action is required.