Fee-paying students have real advantage

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS

PARENTS get what they pay for and students who attend private schools are more likely to secure a place at third level, according to our feeder schools data.

It shows students from a fee-paying background are three times more likely to secure places in the country’s most prestigious universities.

Less than one-tenth of students who sit the Leaving Certificate every year attend a fee-paying school. However, three times this figure made up the incoming student populations in Trinity College and University College Dublin (UCD) last year.

The Sunday Independent school league tables track the pathways to third level for students from fee-paying and non fee-paying backgrounds. The tables reveal a higher volume of students from fee-paying schools end up at top universities.

Last September, 30pc of new entrants to Trinity College from Irish schools came from the fee-paying sector. These schools accounted for just 9pc of Leaving Certificate students.

At UCD, 28pc of the incoming students from Irish schools came from a fee-paying background.

The number of first year students from fee-paying feeder schools was above the 9pc average at six Irish universities last year. These included the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Queen’s Belfast, University College Cork (UCC), and TU Dublin.

Four institutes of technology or other third level colleges also tallied above the 9pc average when the number of admissions from fee-paying schools was measured.

At Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art and Design the figure was 23pc. Almost one in five students (19pc) at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin came from fee-paying schools. The figure stood at 15pc for Dublin Business School. At Griffith College, 13pc of admissions from the Leaving Certificate class of 2019 came from the fee-paying sector.

The information also shows the universities and colleges with the least number of feepaying students. Just 2pc of new admissions to the University of Limerick attended fee-paying schools last year. This figure stood at 1pc for Mary Immaculate College, IT Sligo, IT Tralee, Athlone IT, Letterkenny IT and Waterford IT.

Students from non fee-paying schools are less likely to secure university places, according to the data.

Further analysis shows just over half (51pc) of students from non fee-paying schools go to university. Seven in every 10 feepaying students go to university.

All of Ireland’s universities and institutes of technology run access programmes to attract more students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

UCD says it aims to have a student population that reflects society. Approximately one third (32pc) of its student body includes students with disabilities, from low-income households, ethnic minorities or other diverse groups.

Trinity College also runs an access programme because it recognises 90pc of the top 10 feeder schools to Trinity and

UCD are drawn from the feepaying sector. It aims to widen participation at third level by improving progression from all aspects of society.

A recent Higher Education Authority report pointed to an increase in the number of students from working class backgrounds progressing to third level. A separate OECD study shows Ireland and the UK are two of the top five countries with programmes effectively targeting groups who are under-represented at third level, helping to improve pathways to top colleges and universities.

Digging further into the data we can see single-sex schools out-perform co-ed schools when throughput to college is compared.

Just 1pc of students who attended a fee-paying single-sex school did not go on to third level in Ireland last year. This rises to 11pc for mixed-gender, fee-paying schools.

Seven out of 10 students in the single-sex, fee-paying sector secured a university place last year. This dropped to just over half (56pc) for the co-ed equivalent. One third of students who attended mixed gender feepaying schools took up a place in a college or institute of technology last year.

Students who attended a co-ed, non fee-paying school are less likely to progress to university than students in single-sex or feepaying schools.

Less than one third of pupils (32pc) who sat the Leaving Certificate last year in a non feepaying, mixed-gender school went on to university afterwards. Four out of every 10 took up a place at a college or IT. More than a quarter of students from these schools (28pc) did not take up a place at third level.