My Department does not have figures available in relation to the number of participants from disadvantaged backgrounds as a percentage of the total number of students in the university, institute of technology and post leaving certificate sectors. In regard to the higher education sector, the most comprehensive figures derive from a series of surveys commissioned by the Higher Education Authority and undertaken by Professor Patrick Clancy. Surveys have been undertaken on new entrants entering full-time higher education in 1980, 1986, 1992 and 1998. The most recent report entitled College Entry in Focus: A Fourth National Survey of Access to Higher Education, is based on a national survey of all first enrolments of undergraduates in their first year of study as full-time higher education students in 43 higher education colleges in autumn 1998. The study is based primarily on an analysis of personal demographic and educational data, which were abstracted from individual student record forms. Being the fourth in a series of national surveys carried out at six-year intervals, this study facilitates an analysis of changes in the pattern of participation over a period of 18 years.
The following tables from the latest Clancy report show the estimated proportion of age cohort entering full-time higher education by father's socio-economic group and the rates of admission to higher education in Dublin by postal district.
Table 25
Estimated proportion of age cohort entering full-time higher education by father's socio-economic group in 1980, 1986, 1992 and 1998