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Progression: Methodology & Executive Summary
The Higher Education Authority Act 2022 highlights the HEA’s role in facilitating access, transfer and progression. The following analysis has been carried out to facilitate an understanding of access, transfer and progression within HEA-funded higher education institutions. The report is presented in five chapters:
• Methodology & Executive Summary
• Non-progression by Course Characteristics
• Non-progression by Student Characteristics
• Continuation
• Completion
The focus of this chapter of the report is the methodology and executive summary.
Background and Context
The data source is the national database on higher education students and graduates in Ireland (Student Record System (SRS)). Data is returned to the HEA by Higher Education Institutions based on a census of the student population as of 1 March each year. Unique identifiers within the SRS returns are used to track students in progression, continuation and completion.
Progression, continuation and completion analyses are all performed on the same base cohort of students – new entrants. These are full-time undergraduate students typically in course year 1, who are studying at NFQ Levels 6/7/8. This includes higher certificates (Level 6), ordinary bachelor degrees (Level 7) and honours bachelor degrees (Level 8).
Since 2025, students who progressed in their studies in another HEI are considered to have progressed in addition to what was previously collected within the higher education system, and therefore, considered progressed in this report.
The dataset for all the above analyses is the same (SRS return) and the most recent complete data is deemed the most relevant. The most recent complete data differs based on the analysis:
• Progression 2023/2024
• Continuation 2016/2017-2022/2023
• Completion 2016/2017-2019/2020How to use our Data
All interactive charts in this report contain filters and some contain view selectors:
• Filters allow the selection of specific cohorts, for example from an individual HEI or field of study.
• View selectors change the layout of the chart , for example from by HEI view to a by field of study view.
• All progression charts contain an “Includes Transfers” filter that allows users to toggle between including transfers as progressed (including transfers allows HEIs to see how many students have progressed in their studies in another HEI) or excluding transfers from this figure.All interactive tables have a minimum cell count of 25 applied and in cases where more sensitive data is displayed the minimum cell count is 100 these include all Access, Entry Basis and Socio-Economic charts.
Please exercise caution when comparing non-progression rates across NFQ Levels, fields of study and particularly when comparing non-progression rates by HEI. Different HEIs have different mixes of course offerings, focuses on specialist subjects etc.
Key Definitions:
Progression:
| Progressed | A new entrant, who is present (repeating year 1 or advancing to year 2) in the same HEI the following academic year as per the SRS return. For example, a new entrant to UCC (Year 1) in 2019/2020 who is present in UCC (Year 2) in 2020/2021 |
| Non-Progressed | A new entrant, who is not present in the same HEI and has not transferred to a different HEI the following academic year as per the SRS return. For example, a new entrant to UL (Year 1) in 2019/2020 who is not present in UL or any other HEI in 2020/2021 |
| Transferred | A new entrant, who is present in a different HEI the following academic year as per the SRS return. For example, a new entrant to MU (Year 1) in 2019/2020 who is not present in MU in 2020/2021 but is present in ATU in 2020/2021 |
Continuation:
| Continuation | A student who is continuing their studies in the same HEI at a higher course year to the previous academic year as per the SRS return. Progression focuses solely on a student’s first and second years enrolled in higher education whilst continuation tracks these and every subsequent year. For example, a UL student (year 2) in 2022/2023 who continues in UL (year 3) in 2023/2024 |
| Re-enrolled | A student who is continuing in the same HEI at the same course year or a lower course year to the previous academic year as per the SRS return. For example, a TCD student (year 3) in 2021/2022 who repeats in TCD (year 3) in 2022/2023 |
| Gained an award | A student who has gained an award at Levels 6/7/8 in the same HEI as per the SRS return. For example, a UCD student who entered higher education for the first time in 2019/2020 and gained an honours bachelor degree in UCD |
| Absent | A student who does not continue to be enrolled in their studies in the same HEI as per the SRS return. For example, a UCC student (year 2) in 2023/2024 who is not present in UCC in 2024/2025 |
Completion:
| Completion | A new entrant who has gained an award to date, in the same HEI they entered at NFQ Level 6/7/8 as per the SRS return. For example, a new entrant to MU in 2018/2019 who has gained an award in MU between 2019/2020 and the present (2024/2025) |
Executive Summary
- Progression:
- Of the 2023/24 new entrants, 9.3% of new entrants did not progress in their own HEI or transfer to another HEI. This is the lowest non-progression rate since 2019/20.
- Education remains the field of study with the lowest rate of non-progression overall at 4.5%, while Services remain the field of study with the highest rate of non-progression overall at 18.8%.
- Services was the field of study with the largest decrease in non-progression year on year, dropping 4.9 percentage points from 23.7% (2022/2023) to 18.8% (2023/2024).
- New entrants whose primary entry basis was second level school leaving exams had the lowest non-progression rate in 2023/2024 at 8.9%, while new entrants whose primary entry basis was mature years had the highest rate of non-progression in 2023/2024 at 13.4%.
- New entrants with higher Leaving Certificate points tend to have lower non-progression rates. For example, 2023/2024 new entrants who earned points in the highest points band (600-625) had a non-progression rate of 1.2%. This finding has been consistent over the last six years.
- Continuation:
- While 83.4% of 2020/2021 new entrants progressed from the first year of their studies to the subsequent course year of their studies, 69.8% of second year students continued to the third year of their studies.
- Within continuation the rate of absence for 2020/2021 was 12.4% following year 1. This rose to 19.7% following year 2 and then to 22.9% the following academic year. This highlights that the largest absence rate of new entrants is seen between year 1 and year 2.
- Completion:
- By 2024, the completion rate of 2019/2020 new entrants was 76.6%. This means that more than 3 in 4 new entrants who started their studies in 2019/20 had completed their studies and graduated with an award five years later.
- Education was the field of study with the highest completion rate for 2019/2020 new entrants at 90.4%.
- Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction were the fields of study with the lowest rates of completion for 2019/2020 new entrants at 63.5%.