Trinity has a higher proportion of students from affluent backgrounds than any college in Ireland, according to figures published by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) today.
Some 36 per cent of Trinity students come from affluent areas, while only five per cent come from disadvantaged areas – the joint-lowest percentage, along with University College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
This is the second time that the HEA has gathered data on the socio-economic backgrounds of university students. Trinity was not included in last year’s figures due to data protection issues.
The data is based on Deprivation Index Scores, which measure the relative affluence or disadvantage of a particular area based on data compiled from the census.
In a statement to The University Times, Tom Molloy, Trinity’s director of public affairs & communications, said: “College has pioneered the Trinity Access Programme and other schemes to counter disadvantage but it is clear that there are still problems when it comes to access and disadvantage.”
“To counter this”, he added, “we need to build on recent initiatives and do more to show everyone that Trinity is open to everybody”.
The HEA’s figures also showed that there are 4.9 students from disadvantaged areas to every 10 students from affluent areas. It noted, however, that this varies across institutions.
Courses such as finance, banking and medicine have disproportionately high numbers of students from affluent areas. Just four per cent of medicine students come from disadvantaged areas, the HEA said.
In a press statement, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said: “This is a really valuable and important piece of work. Since my appointment, I have made it clear that it is my ambition to ensure third level education is accessible to everyone, regardless of age, race, geography or gender.”
“In order to achieve that aim”, Harris said, “we must ensure that our policies strengthen the participation of students in higher education and to do that, we need accurate data and evidence”.
“This is the second year of such data collection and I believe it will be an excellent resource to us as we prepare our new National Access Plan. I want to thank the Higher Education Authority for its work on this report.”
