Trinity students are more likely to finish their college course than the national average rate, a study by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) has found.
Overall, Trinity saw a completion rate of 85.9 per cent, compared to an Irish average of 75.4 per cent.
The study tracked thousands of students over a 10-year period and compared a number of demographic factors with their performance including whether or not they completed their higher education course.
Some 81.1 per cent of female students completed their degrees, compared to only 69.7 per cent of male students. This trend extended to overall grades where females significantly outperformed their male counterparts.
However, in Trinity, the gap between male and female students appears to be smaller with a course completion rate of 87.9 per cent for females and 82.9 per cent for males.
Male students who obtained low Leaving Certificate points are at particular risk of dropping out of college.
Students from DEIS schools, which aim to help at-risk children or those who are at an educational disadvantage, had an overall completion rate of only 66.6 per cent, which was below the national average. Students from fee-paying schools had a rate of 80 per cent.
In Trinity, these numbers were 80.1 per cent and 88.9 per cent respectively.
Leaving certificate points appear to be a key indicator of future course completion, with less than half of students with under 300 points going on to finish their degrees. On the other end of the scale, 93.1 per cent of students with between 500 and 600 points completed their courses.
One positive indication was that over 17 per cent of students who dropped out of a course went on to graduate through an alternative Irish higher education route.
A field with a remarkably low rate was computing with only 55.6 per cent of students completing their courses nationally compared to 64.2 per cent in Trinity.
Institutes of Technology saw the courses with the highest rates of non-completion. These include 86 per cent for Civil Engineering at Letterkenny IT, 81 per cent for Biology and Biochemistry at IT Tralee, and 67 per cent for Computing at Athlone IT.
Speaking to the Irish Times, the Chief Executive of the Technological Higher Education Association Joseph Ryan said that the data should be used to inform future government spending.
He added that the government should work to “ensure that those students who wish to complete their programmes receive the extra supports and opportunities to do so”.
