Top marks for Waterford and Carlow ITs

A draft study of non-completion rates on courses in institutes of technology shows that overall, Waterford IT and Carlow IT boast the best retention rates in the sector. With more than 67 per cent of students completing their courses on time, the two institutes are followed by Tralee (61 per cent), Galway-Mayo and Sligo (both 58 per cent). Dundalk IT (41 per cent) and Letterkenny IT (39 per cent), meanwhile, have the lowest retention rates.

The study, undertaken by the Educational Research Centre, St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, focuses on the completion rates of students entering 11 ITs in 1995. The students were enrolled on certificate, ab initio diploma and ab initio degree courses. Of the 11,175 students who began their courses in 1995, just over half graduated on time. A little more than two-fifths failed to complete their courses. Until recently, information regarding non-completion in the third-level sector was almost impossible to obtain. A number of recent studies, however, indicate that non-completion at third level is a serious issue and that even in the university sector it is running at up to 20 per cent. Increasingly, non-completion is becoming a public concern.

This most recent study was commissioned by the council of directors of ITs, which has established a high-level group to look at the issue of retention. This research will be followed by a second phase which will examine the factors associated with retention among a sample of students entering the ITs for the first time this autumn. Last year, the former Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin, allocated £1.5 million to the ITs and the DIT to support measures to address non-completion rates. As a result, the institutes have introduced a range of initiatives, including extra supports for students with particular academic weaknesses.

The study shows that non-completion rates vary considerably from college to college and from department to department. Humanities departments performed best - nearly two-thirds of graduates completed on time and only one-third failed to finish. Business studies also performed relatively well, with almost three-fifths graduating on time and a little more than one-third failing to complete. Science courses graduated just over half of their students on time, while two-fifths failed to complete. Engineering and computing courses suffer the lowest completion rates. Half the students taking up these courses in 1995 failed to complete.

While almost three-fifths of students in the IT sector taking certificate courses in business studies graduate on time, the report shows that there are significant differences between the ITs when it comes to the number of students completing these courses. In both Carlow IT and Waterford IT fewer than a quarter of students fail to complete their studies. In Dundalk and Leterkenny, however, more than half the students on certificate in business studies courses don't complete. According to the draft study, over half the IT students enrolled on certificate courses in engineering fail to complete.

In this group, Letterkenny has the highest non-completion rate - almost seven out of 10 students. Two-fifths of certificate science students and half the students taking computing at certificate level also fail to complete. At diploma level, more than half (52 per cent) of students taking engineering and just under half the science students (46 per cent) fail to complete. The completion rate for degree courses in the IT sector is significantly higher than it is for certificate or diploma programmes. In engineering, the non-completion rate is just a third, while in science it's slightly higher, at 35 per cent.

The study identifies a relationship between the points required at entry and completion rates. Where courses have high entry points (290525), more than six out of 10 students graduate on time, while three in 10 leave college without a qualification for the course on which they had originally enrolled. The percentage of students graduating on time decreases as the number of points for entry decreases. At the same time, the percentage of those failing to complete increases. Courses that admit all qualified applicants are those with the highest failure rate, according to the study. Here, almost two-thirds of students fail to complete and less than one-third graduate on time.

Even among students who opt to repeat first year, the non-completion rate is high - 60 per cent. "The percentage of students who repeated first year and then failed to complete the course was very high," according to the draft survey, "with the exception of Cork (20.4 per cent)." There's no doubting the seriousness of the retention issue.

The fact that non-completion rates vary so widely from college to college "is an important matter, since it has effects on students, staff and on efforts to improve teaching and learning," the authors of the study say. "Areas that involve maths, science, engineering and technology have much higher rates of non-completion than other areas. While there is some evidence that this happens in courses in other countries, the extent of the difference in Irish institutions is remarkable."