This chapter provides background information on the numbers of graduates broken down by key analysis parameters. This information may be used as a reference when interpreting the findings of the previous chapters.
Note that the data throughout this report includes only `young’ graduates who are below an age threshold, based on their award type, when they graduate. Also, certain categories of students are excluded, and the data includes only a single graduation record per person per year, so that individuals are not double-counted in any of the outcomes analysis in any single year. The full details of the eligibility criteria and the process by which a single graduation record is selected in the case of multiple graduations per year are detailed in the Background Notes chapter.
Data in this present section includes those graduation records with a missing or invalid PPSN. Since such records cannot be matched to outcomes, they are excluded from the previous outcomes-related chapters. These records are included in the present section to provide a more complete picture of trends in Ireland’s higher education sector. Rates of missing or invalid PPSN have been calculated by relevant analysis parameters and are presented here to assist in the interpretation of the rest of this report.
The data underpinning the majority of these tables are available via PxStat tables: HEO17, HEO02, HEO03, HEO04 and HEO14; PPSN coverage is presented in the final table as a supplementary analysis.
Graduate numbers for each graduation year are disaggregated by various parameters in Table 5.1 below.
Female graduates outnumbered male graduates in all years. For the latest graduation cohort of 2022, female graduates made up 56% of the total. Looking at the NFQ level of the programmes from which graduates had graduated, the majority were at NFQ Level 8, there being 29,360 graduates at this NFQ level in 2022. The least prevalent NFQ level in the same year was NFQ Level 10, with 440 graduates at this level.
Examining trends across graduation years, the share of graduates from NFQ Level 9 programmes was greater than in 2022 relative to 2013. In contrast, the number of graduates from NFQ Level 7 programmes has seen the largest relative decline across the same period. The 2022 cohort of graduates also consisted of a greater share of share of graduates domiciled outside of Ireland, with this being the case for 16% of graduates in 2022 compared to 8% in 2013.
Graduate numbers for each higher education institution are shown in Table 5.2 for graduation years 2013 to 2022. Most ‘young’ graduates, examined here, graduated from universities. In 2022 the largest number of graduates were from University College Dublin, followed by Trinity College Dublin and then by University College Cork.
As is evident in the table, St Patrick’s College and Mater Dei Institute merged with Dublin City University in 2016. Additionally, one can observe the formation of the five currently existing technological universities: Technological University Dublin (TUD), established on 1 January 2019; Munster Technological University (MTU), established on 1 January 2021; Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), established on 1 October 2021; Atlantic Technological University (ATU), established on 1 April 2022; and South East Technological University (SETU), established on 1 May 2022; these being formed from the merging of previously existing Institutes of Technology: Cork IT; Galway-Mayo IT; IT Sligo; IT Tralee; Letterkenny IT; Waterford IT; Athlone IT; IT Blanchardstown; IT Carlow; Dublin Institute of Technology; Limerick IT; and Tallaght IT, all of which have now ceased to exist as independent institutions. Please consult the relevant section of the HEA website for further detail. As St. Angela’s College became part of ATU in 2023, in future releases, in data referring to 2023 and beyond, these graduates will be reported as part of the aggregated statistics for ATU.
Graduate numbers for each of the ten fields of study from 2013 to 2022 are shown in Table 5.3 below.
Among the 2022 graduation cohort, the most common field of study was Business, Administration and Law. This was also the most prevalent field of study amongst the graduation cohort of 2013.
The number of graduates from Information and Communication Technologies has seen the largest proportional increase over the period, rising from 1,590 in 2013 to 2,630 in 2022, an increase of around 65%. In contrast, the number of Services graduates in 2022 was lower than in 2013.
The number of male and female graduates from the 2022 cohort are broken down by field of study in Table 5.4 below.
The field of study showing the greatest gender disparity in 2022 was Health and Welfare, which represented 21% of the female cohort but 7% of the male cohort. Notable differences by gender were also evident for Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction graduates and for graduates from Information and Communication Technologies, both of which consisted of more male than female graduates.
In contrast, some fields of study represented a similar share of the graduate cohort regardless of gender, such as Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Veterinary.
The majority of NFQ Level 7 graduates in 2022 had completed a programme in Business, Administration and Law. For NFQ Level 6, the most common field of study was Health and Welfare. Graduates in the same 2022 cohort who had completed a course at NFQ level 8 had most commonly completed a programme in Business, Administration and Law. For NFQ Level 9, this was also Business, Administration and Law. Finally, there were 180 graduations at NFQ Level 10 from Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, which represented the most common field of study at this NFQ level (accounting for 41% of 2022 graduates at this NFQ level).
The proportions of 2022 graduates from each field of study are examined separately for each of the eight NUTS3 statistical regions in Ireland in Table 5.6 below. The region for each graduate is based on the county that they lived in prior to entering their higher education course; graduates not residing in Ireland prior to programme entry are by definition excluded.
Some fields of study showed a similar rate of prevalence amongst graduates regardless of their region. These included Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics and Services. In other cases, graduates from certain regions showed a preference for specific fields of study over others. As the table below shows, graduates from NUTS3 region Dublin were more likely to have studied Social Sciences, Journalism and Information. To a lesser extent, graduates from the NUTS3 West region were more likely to have studied Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics and Dublin graduates were less likely to have studied Education.
The number of graduates is presented below by whether their Country of Domicile was Ireland or a country other than Ireland. These are presented below broken down by field of study and by NFQ level for the latest graduation year of 2022. This breakdown can be explored for other graduation years using the PxStat table HEO17.
As Table 5.7 indicates, graduates domiciled elsewhere than Ireland were most likely to be enrolled in Business, Administration and Law than any other field of study.
Looking at the NFQ level of these graduates, those domiciled outside of Ireland were more likely to have graduated from a programme at NFQ Level 9, whereas graduates who were domiciled in Ireland were predominantly from NFQ Level 8 programmes.
The clearest impact on PPSN coverage was seen for country of domicile. In the latest cohort of 2022 graduates, whilst only 0.6% of graduates domiciled in Ireland were missing a valid PPSN, this was around 80% for those graduates domiciled elsewhere.
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