Social apartheid in Irish college entry

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

The number of Leaving Certificate students in the 26 Counties moving on to third level education has risen to 60% from 20% in 1980, while representation of lower income households in Irish colleges has increased. So is access to third level education finally becoming fairer and truly representative of all social groups?

A firm 'No' is the conclusion from a new report published this week by the Economic and Social Research Institute for the Higher Education Authority.

The report finds a significant jump in the percentage of students entering third level. Though higher income groups are still all over-represented, there has been significant changes in the percentage representation of other social classes.

For example employers, managers, and higher professionals account for 34.2% of 2004 third level entrants, while this social group makes up 26.1% of the actual population.

The other biggest change is the amount of children of skilled manual workers going to college, the amount of students coming from this class has almost doubled since 1998. In 2004 this group was 12.3% of the 26-County population and 13.5% of the college.

However, the proportion of students from non-manual employment households is still substantially under represented, while the gap in the unskilled worker category is less pronounced.

Another anomaly in the report is the quality and duration of degrees being awarded. The 26 Counties comes second in the OECD when it comes to the amount of certificates and diplomas being awarded. This ranking falls to eighth when you look at the amount of degrees being conferred and 13th for postgraduate study. This then is hardly the building blocks of the knowledge economy and the report doesn't deal with the social class of who is getting to complete degrees and enter post graduate research, compared with the social class makeup of students doing diplomas and certs.

The most worrying figures in the report though are those dealing with the percentage of students from different social classes who actually sit their leaving certificate. 89.8% of the children of higher professionals sit the leaving certificate, compared to only 77% of the children of semi and unskilled manual workers. The only conclusion is that ,while college entry levels are increasing, there is a significant section of children who are not getting even to the starting gates.

College entry in numbers

77% Percentage of children of semi and unskilled workers who don't sit leaving certificate

19.7% Proportion of population in non manual employment

8.9% Percentage non manual group made up of 2004 college entrants

34.2% College entry percentage of children of employers, managers, and higher professionals

26.1%Percentage of the actual population who are in the employers and higher professions