Young people in the Republic have one of the worst records in Europe when it comes to speaking continental languages, a new report has found.
The Euro Student Survey found that Irish people in general "have little competence in continental European languages" and about half of all students, even with the benefit of second-level education, cannot speak a foreign language.
The report which examined student life across Europe said the Republic was a "special case" in relation to foreign languages. Even those with a proficiency in a foreign language (French in most cases) admitted they were not "good or very good" at speaking that language.
The performance of Irish students in relation to languages lagged considerably behind students from Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Germany. Ireland had the lowest proficiency in the whole report, although not all the countries of the EU were examined. The survey is the first qualitative study of student life published. It was released in Dublin yesterday by the Higher Education Authority (HEA).
While the Republic performed poorly in the languages section, it was placed towards to top in relation to other indicators. For example, the percentage of young people (45 per cent) entering third level was the third highest of the eight countries surveyed.
The majority of students said they were satisfied with their accommodation. The majority of Irish students, the report found, lived away from home and took a flat or house in the private rented sector.
The report found however that Irish colleges made poor provision for students, with only 4 per cent of them picking up a student residence place. This was the lowest rate among the countries surveyed.
While the Republic's third-level entry rate was commended, the report found that students here have few routes into third level apart from the traditional Leaving Cert. Just over 7 per cent of students entered college through a non-traditional route.
The level of part-time working among students was also noted by the report. By the end of second level about 90 per cent of students had undertaken part-time work at some stage.
The results of the survey which involved questioning 9,000 Irish students in 2000 are available on the HEA's website, www.hea.ie