HEA – Non-Progression – Course Characteristics-2026 | Statistics

The focus of this chapter of the report is progression and non-progression with an emphasis on course characteristics.

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

For the 2023/2024 cohort 89.2% of year 1 new entrants progressed within their own institution, a further 1.6%, on average, transferred to another institution in the following academic year. As students who have transferred to another HEI are considered progressed in this report, the non-progression rate is 9.3% for the 2023/24 new entrant cohort.
The academic year 2023/2024 had the lowest non-progression rate (9.3%) since 2019/2020 (7.8%).
The academic year with the highest non-progression rate was 2021/2022 (13.2%) towards the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Non-Progression Trends 2016/2017-2023/2024 – Key Findings:

The overall rate of non-progression (9.3%) has dropped to the lowest level since 2019/2020. The 2019/2020 cohort was the first cohort of new entrants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (7.8%). This trend is consistent across all three NFQ levels examined.
Level 6 and Level 7 non-progression dropped to 18.5% and 21.4% respectively, whilst Level 8 non-progression dropped from 9.1% to 7.8%.

Non-Progression Trends 2016/2017-2023/2024 – Field of Study

Continuing the trend from previous years, Education continues to be the field of study with the lowest rate of non-progression (4.5%), while. Whilst the highest overall rate of non-progression was in Services, the rate of non-progression has dropped from 23.7% (2022/2023) to 18.8% (2023/2024).
At Level 8, Arts & Humanities and Services, remained the disciplines with the highest levels of non-progression, although both displayed decreases in non-progression from 2022/2023 (Arts & Humanities 11.9% to 10.7%, Services 20.5% to 15.4%).
A previous analysis showed that of new entrants who did not progress 48% were in employment the following year. This varied by field of study for example Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction and Services new entrants who did not progress were most likely to be in employment the following year (58.2% and 61.8% respectively).
For further information on outcomes for new entrants who did not progress see CSO Higher Education Outcomes – Non Progression 2021 publication.

Non-Progression Trends 2016/2017-2023/2024 – HEI

The Royal College of Surgeons was the HEI with the lowest rate of non-progression in 2023/2024 at 2.1%, followed by University College Dublin at 3.8% and Dublin City University at 4.2%.
In 2023/2024, the HEI with the biggest decrease in non-progression was Dundalk IT with a non-progression rate of 17.9% in 2023/2024 compared to 24.0% in 2022/2023.
Atlantic Technological University also had a large decrease in non-progression in 2023/2024 (13.8%) from 18.2% in 2022/2023.
Only three HEIs displayed an increase in non-progression between 2022/2023 and 2023/2024. These were: Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (11.5% to 12.7%), Mary Immaculate College Limerick (4.5% to 5.0%) and National College of Art and Design (7.7% to 8.9%).