Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) has tapped into new learning constituencies and created a unique student profile that is taking it to a higher level, writes Louise Holden.

Forty per cent of students at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) come from working-class backgrounds - more than twice the national average. DKIT is the single biggest destination for school leavers from the four counties of Meath, Louth, Monaghan and Cavan. What started 30 years ago as a Regional Technical College now accommodates 3,400 students in a range of programmes from engineering to nursing to music.

The institute has flourished in the last 10 years, with 75 per cent growth in the student numbers, campus transformation and a hugely expanded portfolio of programmes, including two Master's level offerings.

The campus footprint continues to grow, dwarfing the original Soviet-style RTC facility. DKIT is bursting at the seams - an ambitious campus development programme involving capital expenditure of €130 million by 2010 has been devised to cope with projected demand.

DKIT has transformed education provision in the north east. Ten years ago students with an interest in the humanities, health sciences or business had to leave to region. The costs associated with studying away from home made this an impossible dream for many students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Now such students are catered for closer to home, and the institute takes its regional responsibility very seriously.

Tom Collins, director of DKIT, has helped to lead what could be described as a cultural renaissance at the institute. A stroll through the new TK Whitaker Centre is rewarding for art lovers, with striking original work around every corner. The expansion of the institute's humanities faculty has helped to drive up student numbers and is designed to create a new cultural centre for the north east.

"This institute has a responsibility to local industry and economic development, but not at the expense of cultural growth and social cohesion," Collins asserts. "The role of the IoT sector is changing - it is no longer about the provision of vocational and technical education. These students deserve a holistic learning experience; they deserve to be exposed to cultural and aesthetic values in their own region."

The unusual socio-economic profile of the student body at DKIT brings its own challenges and calls for original approaches to student support. "Students from disadvantaged backgrounds need even more support than their peers from a culture of third-level participation. Financial pressures, such as low discretionary income, place onerous demands on some of these students and their families. Some are making considerable sacrifices to come to third level and are the first in their families to do so."

"Many students are hampered further by their experience of the points race and its consequences at second level," Collins contends. He is sharply critical of the current post-primary system. "We spend a lot of time undoing the damage done to students at secondary level. So many have had a negative experience of the points race. Most of our students achieve between 200 and 400 points in the Leaving. At what line on the points scale is a student entitled to feel successful? Second-level assumptions work for 20 per cent of the population. We do not want to replicate the second-level experience here."

Student attrition poses a stubborn challenge right across the third-level sector - institutes of technology have had particular problems getting their retention rates up. Five years ago, DKIT had dropout rates of up to 40 per cent. Collins believes that retention rates at DKIT have improved a lot faster than public perception.

"Over the last five years we have improved our retention rates significantly, through measures such as annual reviews of examination outcomes, consultation with careers guidance counsellors, improved student supports and, most importantly, curriculum reform. Every department is bringing in new teaching models to give students a more rewarding learning experience."

Some departments are losing students faster than others. Some 90 per cent of humanities and nursing students complete their programmes, while some experimental science programmes are losing 60 per cent of their students before graduation. The institute has overall retention rates of 75 per cent, which is average in the sector, but the gloomy reports of five years ago still hang around and it has been hard to penetrate the public mind.

For some students, the pressure of college is just too much. Given that so many DKIT students come from modest financial backgrounds, the difficulties are more often financial than academic.

Gertie Raftery runs the student counselling service.

"I have wall-to-wall consultations with students under varying degrees of pressure," says Raftery, who started running the service before Christmas. "Ninety per cent of the students who come to see me have been bullied at some stage - many are still trying to get over bullying episodes in school. Financial problems and family disharmony are two other common issues. It's good that these students are coming here to talk. Obviously we would like to catch them before they fall out of the system. More importantly, we want to assess risk of self harm. There are enormous pressures on students today."

Unusually for a counselling service, Raftery's client base is 55 per cent male.

Evidence of a caring ethos at the institute extends beyond the counselling room. The Quiet Room, decorated by the clients of the Camphill Community for people with learning disabilities, provides a calming space. All new physical development at the institute has an eye on aesthetics. Collins and his management team are determined to offer students a more human environment than the old RTC buildings provided. One per cent of all capital spending is invested in original artwork.

There's plenty more to be done. Students report a caring, community feel at the institute, but they admit there's little buzz here in the evenings. The campus is drained by a fleet of 5 p.m. buses carrying students back to their homes in counties Meath, Louth, Monaghan, Cavan and Dublin. A clubs and societies officer has just been appointed and improved sporting facilities are starting to bring students to the campus outside lecture hours.

In 10 years' time, DKIT will lie at the heart of the third largest population concentration on the island. Population projections for the Border region point towards rapid population increase in the expanded Dublin area. Improved infrastructure and international investment are bringing more potential students to the region. Increased cross-Border co-operation should place Dundalk at the centre of the action.

Collins and his management team are determined to lead change in a positive direction for the north east. "For too long this region has been on the periphery of the Irish psyche," he says. "Now we're moving centre stage."