UCD and Trinity College have the lowest number of students from unskilled backgrounds of the State's seven universities, according to the report.
According to 1998 figures, about 0.7 per cent of Trinity's students were from homes headed by unskilled parents. Just under 1 per cent of UCD's student population had such a background. Outside the universities, there were no such students in the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland (RCSI), the National College of Ireland or the Milltown Institute, all based in Dublin.
The report says children of employers and managers continue to dominate at third level. It says this group "is particularly strongly represented" in RCSI, DCU, Trinity and UCD. "This group forms between a quarter and a third of entrants to these college," it states.
In RCSI students from households headed by a higher professional account for 41 per cent of the student population. Higher professionals were also strongly represented in Trinity (24.4 per cent) and UCD (20.4 per cent). Students from homes headed by a manual worker were well represented at NUI Maynooth, UCC and DCU. Students from farming backgrounds were strongly represented in the University of Limerick (25.3 per cent) and NUI Galway (18.7 per cent).
The student profile at the Institutes of Technology (ITs) was different to the universities. More than 4 per cent of ITs' student body came from an unskilled background, compared to 1.9 per cent at university. The Dublin Institutes of Technology had a larger number of students from homes headed by an employer/ manager than other institutes.
On the institutes generally it states: "Tallaght has a relatively high proportion of students from the manual skilled group. This is also the case for Dundalk, Athlone, Tralee and Carlow." Letterkenny and Dundalk IT had the most students from semiskilled and unskilled back grounds.
The report notes that at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, 46.8 per cent of students came from the employer/ managers and higher professionals backgrounds.
In terms of other colleges the National College of Ireland had large numbers of students from the employer/managers group and from a self-employed background. Students from farming backgrounds continued to be the dominant group at teacher training colleges.