A new entrant is classified as a full-time undergraduate student in their first year of study, enrolled in a programme at NFQ levels 6, 7, or 8. This further excludes those studying overseas, even if affiliated with an Irish institution, and would not include those incoming to Irish higher education institutions as part of mobility programmes, such as Erasmus+. Students originally enrolled on courses relating to the field of study ‘Generic Programmes and Qualifications’ (ISCED-F 00) have also been excluded. Where multiple enrolment records were detected in the same year, these were reduced to a single record by selecting the highest NFQ level.
For a list of the institutions included in HEA data, please refer to the relevant section of the HEA website. Note that due to slight differences in the institutions included and how individuals' records are retained, counts and resultant percentages may not precisely match with similar reports published by the HEA regarding non-progression.
As the census date for institutions to return data to the HEA is March of each academic year, the data reflects new entrants at this time. Thus, individuals who had accepted a place but were not enrolled at this time would not appear in the data. This timing would also apply to the enrolment data in the following academic year used to assess progression status.
Whether an individual is deemed to be ‘in education’ (either with or without substantial employment) is determined by the presence of an enrolment record in any of the following data sources:
These are further described in the ‘Participation in Education’ section of the main methodology page for the Educational Longitudinal Database (ELD).
When producing breakdowns regarding details of the re-enrolment activity (e.g., examining field of study when returning to education, as in the Education chapter), where multiple enrollment records were present, a single enrolment record was selected on the basis of the highest NFQ level. In any cases where the NFQ levels were equivalent, a single record arising from QQI, HEA, or SOLAS was selected in that order of preference; the rationale behind this is that QQI reflects a completed award, activity in HEA is suggestive of a programme with a longer minimum duration, and activity in SOLAS’ PLSS can refer to a wide variety of courses with variable durations.
An individual is regarded as being in 'Substantial Employment' within a given calendar year if they fulfil either of the criteria below.
A. 'Substantial PAYE Employment' - They fulfil the following two requirements:
B. 'Substantial Self-Employment' - Their total turnover across all self-employment activities is at least €1,000 within the calendar year.
Note that an individual may have more than 12 weeks of maternity leave or illness leave (thereby fulfilling the sub-criterion A.1), but without at least one week of insurable work they will not have a value for weekly earnings which can satisfy the sub-criterion A.2.
As with other releases using the Educational Longitudinal Database, earnings reported are gross earnings potentially liable to the Universal Social Charge (USC) from an individual’s main PAYE employment. The main employer for each individual is the one which contributes the single largest pay to that individual over the course of the year. The average weekly earnings for each individual is computed using data from the main employer only, and is calculated as the gross pay divided by the number of weeks of insurable work; it is this average weekly earnings that is then analysed. Self-employed earnings are not reported.
Sector of employment uses the NACE Rev. 2 classification and, as indicated, some categories have been aggregated. This reflects the main activity of the employer, regardless of the individual's specific role within the organisation.
To preserve confidentiality, all aggregate counts of non-progressors have been rounded to the nearest five persons and earnings descriptives have been rounded to the nearest five Euro. This can mean that subtotals when added together don't precisely equal overall totals. Earnings descriptives (including median) have also not been reported in cases where earnings refer to fewer than five persons.
This release uses an updated definition of non-progression from the previous release, omitting from the non-progressed cohort those individuals who transfer from one higher education institution to another. As this represents a different starting cohort from the previous version of this release, the two publications are not directly comparable. In particular, the proportion of non-progressors showing education-related activity is likely to be lower than in the previous release as those who are now deemed to have transferred would likely have previously been determined as being in education (either with or without accompanying substantial employment).
As outcome categories are derived from a range of administrative data sources, routine updating of data sources has occurred since the last release regarding non-progression. In particular, earnings data from Revenue relating to self-employed individuals can be updated several years after the reference period. The analyses in the present report and the associated data tables have incorporated the latest available data at the time of writing for all years considered.
Although details of earnings were not published as part of the previous release, these were used to classify outcomes: as described on the ELD methodology page, the number of weeks worked and weekly earnings thresholds are used to determine substantial employment. Several aspects of the earnings calculation method have been updated since the last non-progression release, the details of which are presented on the ELD methodology page.
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