2nd June 2000

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Over 7000 young Irish people leave Ireland - north and south - to take up places on GB degree courses every year - the equivalent of exporting a small university every year.

That’s just one of the fascinating finding emerging from the first ever study of student application flows north and south, carried out by the University of Ulster in association with UCD.

The study also found that over 700 students from the Republic entered higher education institutions in Northern Ireland in 1997, while 250 students from Northern Ireland were admitted to institutions in the Republic.

The pioneering study was commissioned by the Higher Education Authority in Dublin and conducted by the Centre for Research on Higher Education (a joint Centre of the University of Ulster and Queen’s University, Belfast). The study examined student applications and flows between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain. The Centre collaborated with Professor Pat Clancy of University College, Dublin to undertake the research.

The study reports that in 1997 over 1,800 applications were made by students from the Republic for places in Northern Ireland institutions while over 1,300 from Northern Ireland applied for places in institutions in the Republic.

Entrants from the Republic of Ireland to institutions in Northern Ireland were concentrated in Engineering and Technology, Informatics and Biological Sciences and Subjects Allied to Medicine.

Northern Ireland entrants to degree studies in the Republic of Ireland were concentrated in Arts/Social Sciences (35.7%), Administration/Business courses (16.8%), Law (15.5%), Human Medicine (11.8%) and Veterinary Medicine (5.0%).

Other findings of the study include -

• the major flows of students in 1997/98 were from Northern Ireland to Britain (4351) and the Republic of Ireland to Britain (3171);
  
  
• Only 108 students travelled from Britain to the Republic of Ireland and only 101 made the journey from Britain to Northern Ireland.
  
  
• About half those who applied from the Republic of Ireland to institutions in Britain subsequently accepted a place.
  
  
• Almost a fifth of those travelling from the Republic of Ireland to study in Britain were studying Medicine/Dentistry and Subjects Allied to Medicine (17%) with a further 11% studying Engineering/Technology.
  
  
• Those travelling between the jurisdictions were more likely to be from the better-off social classes with very few from the lowest social classes.
  
  

This analysis of these flows is the first ever undertaken and reveals the scale and characteristics of those moving between the different jurisdictions. The research will examine two further years - 1998/99 and 1999/2000.

Commenting on the report Professor Bob Osborne co-author of the report said:

"These flows of applicants and students are largely a result of market forces - students responding to the opportunities they see available and the costs of studying in different places’. However, opportunities exist within the new political dispensations to develop student movements in order to foster greater collaboration and mutual understanding."

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk