Nearly 30 per cent of students at Tallaght Institute of Technology dropped out after their first year between 1992 and 1997, an internal college study has shown.
Tallaght IT is the first Irish third-level institution to publish detailed statistics showing the proportion of students who drop out before completing their courses, a problem which has been highlighted in the IT sector and largely ignored by the universities.
On average 71 per cent of Tallaght students successfully completed their first year; 82.5 per cent completed a two-year certificate course; 92 per cent a three-year diploma course and 96 per cent a four-year degree course.
The college's course boards have identified four main factors in poor first-year performance: second-level students have "a poor appreciation of what third-level study involves"; students are "often unsure of what the programme they accepted entails"; first-year students are "often unable to undertake the type of autonomous work involved in third level"; and many first-year students - particularly those with average or below average Leaving Certificate performance - are poorly motivated.
The report emphasises that combating this problem will require "a better partnership between third-level institutions and secondary schools". Tallaght IT says it will make this a priority over the next five years.
The report also details the failure by students to move from first to second year according to subject studied. It notes a particularly low average rate of 56 per cent moving from first to second year in electronic engineering. This fell to 36 per cent in 1995, and rose, following remedial action, to 60 per cent in 1997. The actions taken included the provision of remedial mathematics and putting on physics before engineering.
Similarly, two bad years in computing - 44 per cent in 1995 and 52 per cent in 1996 - were turned around to 68 per cent in 1997.
Another concern is that the numbers gaining a merit or distinction at certificate level has declined in all subject areas since such awards were first granted in 1994. It suggests "we are either making it more difficult for students to achieve an honours level" or there are other factors which will have to be investigated and addressed by course boards "as a matter of urgency".