The procedures for deciding and approving the number of places on individual courses are generally a matter for the third level institution involved. The exceptions in this regard occur in the case of teacher training, where my Department sets the levels of intake having regard to national levels of supply and demand for teachers and in the case of undergraduate medical training which is the subject of an annual intake quota, which was introduced in 1980-81 following a report of the Higher Education Authority. Furthermore, the Government has taken a number of initiatives to ensure a sufficient supply of skilled personnel in emerging labour market needs areas. An example is the provision of 5,400 IT-related third level places in response to the needs identified in the first report of the expert group on future skills needs. Another example is my recent announcement of the expansion of undergraduate pharmacy places to tackle the shortage of pharmacists.
On the question of the relationship between the numbers approved for the first year of a course and those for the second and subsequent years of the same course, I am not aware of any practice whereby in certain courses only a certain percentage will be allowed through to the second year of the course. In its study of non-completion in undergraduate university courses, the Educational Research Centre considered data on students who did not progress from their chosen area of study from first to second year in the academic year 1993-94. This is the point at which non-progression from one year of a course to the next is most likely to occur. The data revealed that 2,210 students or 18.8% of the first year cohort did not progress immediately to second year. Of these, 11% had withdrawn from the institution before taking their first year examinations, while 16.2% withdrew having failed their examinations. A further 51.2% failed their first year examinations and were repeating the same course during the following year. Over 10% passed their first year examinations and did not progress to second year.
The Educational Research Centre undertook a similar analysis of students not progressing from first to second year in the 1995-96 academic year in its study on non-completion in institute of technology courses. In this case, 3,890 students or 34.8% of the first year cohort did not progress immediately to second year. Of these, 34.3% had withdrawn from the institution before taking their first year examinations, while 44.4% withdrew having failed their examinations. A further 14.2% failed their first year examinations and were repeating the same course during the following year. Just under 3% of students who did not progress to second year had passed their examinations.
