There has been no significant improvement in the number of school-leavers from poor backgrounds reaching university over the past five years, despite costly Government initiatives aimed at improving access, new figures show.
The figures, which have been seen by The Irish Times in advance of their publication, show that while professionals, farmers and skilled workers are getting their children to university in greater numbers, the chances of children of semi-skilled and unskilled labourers reaching university have not improved.
This is despite the fact that the Rainbow Coalition spent close to £50 million on abolishing undergraduate fees in 1994.
About 14,000 students are currently graduating from the State's seven universities, but only 346 (2.2 per cent) of them come from households headed by an unskilled or semi-skilled worker, traditionally among the lowest earners in the State. These socio-economic groups make up 17 per cent of the State's population according to the last census.
The annual report of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) - to be published later this year - shows children of parents who occupy managerial, employer or professional posts have the greatest chance of getting a university education.
School-leavers whose parents are employers or whose parents are working in the higher and lower professions now make up more than 40 per cent of the student body, compared with 35 per cent five years ago. This group forms 23 per cent of the overall population, according to the last census.
The figures focus on school-leavers who entered university in 1997/98. The situation is understood to have changed little since then, although some colleges have been increasing their intake of students from disadvantaged backgrounds through special access programmes.
Some 115 students from families headed by an unskilled worker made it to university in 1997, just 14 more students than made it from that socio-economic category five years earlier. The majority were female.
Students from families where the parents are employers or managers remain the largest block going to university - making up almost 15 per cent of the intake. Children of lower professionals - teachers, nurses, - were the second-biggest group, accounting for 13 per cent of the college population.
They were followed by children of higher professionals - including academics, doctors, and barristers - who made up 12.5 per cent.
Those from farming families made up 12.1 per cent. This was a slight increase on 1992/93, though farmers only make up 8.5 per cent of the population.
A recent report from the University of Ulster said many college access programmes here have failed to deliver results. The HEA is publishing another report shortly by the UCD researcher, Dr Patrick Clancy, which is expected to show similar findings.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has asked an expert group to report to him within three months on new ways to improve access to university to those from lower socio-economic groups. It is chaired by the former head of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr Cormac McNamara.