The Irish Independent has published a county by county breakdown of where pupils from the Leaving Certificate class of 2021 started in a higher education college in Ireland last autumn, with Waterford included.
The figures do not include pupils who took a different path into further education, such as taking up as post-Leaving Cert (PLC) courses. Nor does it include students who went on to do apprenticeships. The data was analysed and compiled by Ronan Price.
The table is based on pupils who received Leaving Cert results, whether through exams, or through accredited grades, as was the option for the class of 2021. 1,506 pupils in Waterford sat the Leaving Cert last year according to the published data.
The information provided in the breakdown is based on data from colleges in the Republic of Ireland, including all universities and Institutes of Technology, as well as teacher training and hotel management colleges, the National College of Art and Design, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. It also takes in the private colleges DBS and Griffith, as well as Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster, in Northern Ireland. However, it does not have information on students who enrolled in colleges in the UK or elsewhere in the EU.
However, The Irish Independent reports that the table should be "treated with certain caution because not all colleges provide the information in the same way." For example, the data is different on students who sat the Leaving Cert more than once, depending on the college. So, for example, Trinity will only give the last school the student attended, whereas with UCD, if a student did the exams twice, they are doubly listed in the data. This double-counting shows a disproportionately high number of students from some schools entering higher level education, compared to the number of "sits" in June. Where this happens, the percentage is capped at 100%.
An overview of Waterford
According to the table, in Ardscoil na Mara Tramore, all of the 178 pupils who sat the Leaving Cert went onto higher education, the majority of whom (96) went to WIT. Gaelcholáiste Phort Láirge, in which 15 pupils sat the Leaving Cert in 2021, also had a 100% rate of higher education enrolement. Dungarvan CBS, according to the data, had the lowest level of pupils go onto higher education, at 49%, compared to 60% in 2020. In most Waterford schools, WIT was the most popular choice for students, although UCC was the most popular choice for students at St Augustine's Dungarvan, and Blackwater Community College Lismore. WIT was the most popular choice for pupils in Wexford and Kilkenny also.
Nationally, students attending fee-paying schools are significantly more likely to progress to high points college courses. The data found 99.7% of leaving cert students from schools which charge fees progressed to third level. Non-fee-paying schools sent 80% of students to college.
You'll find the full breakdown here.
