Students at Letterkenny IT have some of the highest drop-out rates in Irish institutes, according to a new report.
The Higher Education Authority has recorded that 39% of students who started at the institute in 2007/2008 did not finish programmes.
LYIT had the best retention rate in the country for level 8 degrees (13% dropout), while areas of concern include the 42% of entrants to Level 6 courses who did not complete their programmes.
Over 770 students enrolled at LYIT in the year of the study. From this cohort, 474 completed their programmes and 302 dropped out.
This is the first time that completion rates have been studied across all HEA institutions and universities in Ireland. Computing and technology degrees were identified as having the highest dropout rates across the board.
The HEA ranked LYIT’s Computing course among the 19 courses with the poorest completion rates in universities and ITs nationally. 48% of students who enrolled in this course failed to make it to graduation.
LYIT President Paul Hannigan has welcomed today’s report. Speaking to Donegal Daily, he said completion rates are a complex issue.
Mr Hannigan said: “This is a multi-variative issue that takes into consideration a lot of issues other than student points and abilities, you have to look at socio-economic background, etc.”
Mr Hannigan said other HEA analysis shows that Letterkenny IT has one of the best retention rates of any institute or university in the country, when all aspects such as the background of students and points levels are considered. “From that perspective it’s saying the service we provide here in terms of staff engagement is very strong and that shows in student surveys,” he said.
The lowest combined course completion rate – across all Irish colleges – was computing at 55%. The highest retention levels were in schools of education and health and welfare.
Mr Hannigan said there is an obvious issue relating to retention in Computing.
He said: “The main aspect is around students’ expectations around what the programme actually provides. Students come in initially to study computer programming and there’s a maths requirement around that. So maybe the expectations on the course didn’t fit what they actually expected.”
Looking at the detailed field of study areas showed that hotel, restaurant and catering studies were found to have the lowest completion rate (53%) in Ireland. No specific data was provided for individual institutes.
Regarding the low completion in catering, Mr Hannigan said the figures were surprising compared to student numbers at the Killybegs Campus of LYIT.
“From our perspective, we have had really good progression through the courses at Killybegs and the employment rate at the end of them is nearly 100%,” he said.
Mr Hannigan added: “The biggest thing why people don’t complete courses in LYIT from our own experience is that they are going to get a job somewhere, so that’s not a negative, that’s a positive. There’s a whole load of factors involved in this. If I had a solution to this issue, going back 30 years, I’d be a millionaire.”
Mr Hannigan’s comments came prior to the official launch of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors National Conference 2019, which will take place at LYIT this April.
He said the major event will bring positive opportunities to the region.
“We were delighted to be asked to host the event by the local IGC branch. We’re going to have possibly 400 guidance counsellors here, so it’s very important for us to show off the Institute, to show off the region and show our possibilities for further development,” Mr Hannigan said.
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