Data Definitions and Descriptions



Enrolment
Enrolled in the relevant year as a student in the institute. Census is taken in March each year. Summer schools and some other categories of short-term students are not included. The standard definition of enrolments includes distance learning and e-learning students. These are grouped, under the field Mode of Study,  as ‘other’ in the data for download section.

Graduate
Completed course and officially graduated. Note – graduate data is always one year behind enrolment data.

New Entrant
Full-time 1st year undergraduates entering third level education for the first time.

ISCED Field of Study
A standard international classification of education fields, broad level and detailed level.

Domicile
Country of permanent residence for 3 of the 5 years prior to initial enrolment.

Completion
If a student graduates from the institute they initially enrolled in, even from a different course.

Progression
If a student is still present in the year after the year they initially enrolled in as a 1st year undergraduate, in the same institute.

Deprivation Index Scores
A measure of relative socio-economic position based on the Census small area of home address. Scores range in general from -40 to +40, with less than -10 considered disadvantaged and greater than 10 considered affluent.

Graduate outcomes data includes data from the HEA’s Graduate Outcomes Survey looking at graduates 9 months post-graduation and data from analysis of linked administrative data in the Central Statistics Office (Higher Education Authority, Revenue, Department of Education and Skills and Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection data), up to 8 years post-graduation currently.

Please note totals in visualisations and/or tables may differ due to the exclusion of unknown values for some variables and categories of gender other than male or female due to low counts.

HEA Statistics Unit data only covers HEA-funded higher education institutions, not private colleges.