Michael Creed
Ceist:139 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Education and Science the steps he proposes to take to tackle the drop-out rate at third level colleges. [28293/01]
Vol. 544 No. 2
139 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Education and Science the steps he proposes to take to tackle the drop-out rate at third level colleges. [28293/01]
The Educational Research Centre has completed two comprehensive studies on the extent of non-completion in both the universities and the institutes of technology. These quantitative studies provide analyses of data on non-completion by institution, gender and field of study. A further similar study has also been carried out by the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Following these studies, I requested the Higher Education Authority to host a national seminar on course completion in higher education. This seminar was held in May and provided an opportunity to consider the issues and trends arising from the recent studies against international experience and from the students' perspective. The need for qualitative research to be undertaken into the factors influencing non-completion was highlighted at the seminar and the ERC has been requested to undertake qualitative research in both the university and technological sectors to identify the underlying causes of non-completion with a view to developing and improving strategies to deal with the issue.