Jan O'Sullivan
Ceist:400 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Education and Science the percentage of mature students within the overall intake in each of the third level institutions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19331/98]
Written Answers. - Mature Students.
In the case of the Bachelor of Education degree courses in the colleges of education, the position regarding the 1998 intake of mature students is as follows:
|
Percentage of Overall Intake |
|
|
% |
|
|
Colleges of Education for Primary Teachers |
|
|
St. Patrick's, Drumcondra |
9 |
|
Mary Immaculate, Limerick |
4 |
|
Church of Ireland, Rathmines |
3 |
|
St. Mary's, Marino |
18 |
|
Froebel College, Sion Hill |
11.3 |
|
Colleges of Education for Teachers of Home Economics |
|
|
St. Catherine's, Sion Hill |
2 |
|
St. Angela's, Sligo |
2 |
The position regarding the 1998 intake of mature students in the technological sector is as follows according to the latest data supplied by the institutes:
|
% |
|
|
Dundalk Institute of Technology |
3.07 |
|
Limerick Institute of Technology |
3.20 |
|
Sligo Institute of Technology |
4.79 |
|
Waterford Institute of Technology |
3.30 |
The information in respect of the other institutes of technology has been sought and will be forwarded to the Deputy when available.
The Higher Education Authority has advised that the latest year for which complete student statistics are available for the university sector is the 1995-96 academic year, when mature students represented 7.3 per cent of the overall student intake into the universities. The relevant figures for the universities for the 1995-96 are as follows:
|
% |
|
|
NUI Dublin |
5.6 |
|
NUI Cork |
11.2 |
|
NUI Galway |
3.5 |
|
NUI Maynooth |
11.6 |
|
TCD |
10.1 |
|
DCU |
6.6 |
|
UL |
3.8 |
A range of measures have been introduced in recent years which have attributed to an increase in the number of mature students in third level education. These include improvements in the student support arrangements, the free fees initiative, provisions allowing tax relief on fees for certain third level courses. In addition, the proposed new institute of technology at Blanchardstown and the Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute will have a major focus on non-standard applicants and on mature students and continuing education. Furthermore, the Higher Education Authority targeted funding to its institutions for initiatives designed to support the participation of mature students, particularly second chance students. In 1997, the authority provided £601,000 for projects in this area.
Part-time options are often more attractive to mature students and while a current age profile for part-time students is not available, it is estimated that approximately 85 per cent of the 23,000 part-time students currently in higher education are mature students.