The information published today aims to provide parents with a snapshot of information about how many students from each school in the Republic of Ireland go on to various third-level colleges in Ireland.
This includes progression data for 20 publicly funded colleges in the Republic of Ireland, the two Northern Irish universities, Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University, and two independent, fee-paying third-levels, Griffith College and Dublin Business School.
Our list normally includes all schools in the Republic of Ireland where 11 or more pupils sat the Leaving Cert exam.
To see all of our Feeder School tables broken down by gender and fee-paying and non-fee paying, scroll to the end of this page.
The information in today’s list is compiled from two sources: the State Examinations Commission Leaving Cert sits list, which tells us the number of students that sat the Leaving Cert in each post-primary school this year, and lists provided by each of the higher education institutions which tells us the school of origin of the full-time, first-year undergraduate cohort.
Elsewhere in today’s feeder schools supplement, we look at some of the conversation around how league tables feed into or merely highlight inequality, and we outline the other factors that parents and guardians should consider when choosing a secondary school career outcomes.
These tables give information on every student who ever attended a particular school and began to study this year, and thus includes mature students and deferrals; it is not a picture of the class of 2024 alone.
Caveats and cautions
Each of the colleges on this list records the information in slightly different formats, which means that there can be minor discrepancies.
For instance, many students will change schools during their time in secondary education, and some third-level institutions will record every school that the student ever attended; as a result, the progression level of some schools is likely to be over-reported. On the other hand, every year most third-levels are unable to identify the school of origin of a small number of their students which means those schools don’t get a credit.
The lists, unfortunately, don’t account for the numbers moving into apprenticeships or further education; at the moment, the State does not centrally collect this data. The Irish Times continues its efforts to gather this information.
Our lists do not provide information on how many students went on to study in the UK or overseas, although we know that if this data was available, many Protestant schools including the College of St Columba and St Andrew’s in Dublin, as well as schools in Border counties, would have higher progression rates.
Why is my school not on this list?
Some people will go looking for their local school and find it missing. Why? There are six main reasons:
- The school had fewer than 10 students sitting the Leaving Cert this year and, for data protection reasons, the Department of Education may have withheld information on those schools and their sits;
- The school has amalgamated with other local locals. Where possible — and it usually is — we credit deferred or mature students from a now-closed school to the school into which it has merged;
- The school has closed;
- The school introduced a mandatory transition year in 2022 which means it had no Leaving Cert class this year;
- It is a relatively new school and has not yet had a sixth-year group;
- The school is a “grind school” run without State support. These include Bruce College, the Institute of Education, Hewitt College, Yeats College and some others. They are not included on The Irish Times feeder school lists.
How to read these lists
Let’s say, for instance, you want to see how the schools in Co Waterford, or Dublin 8, have fared.
- Go to the section for Co Kildare, Dublin 8 etc.
- “Number who sat Leaving Cert 2024″: This column tells you the total number of students from each school who registered for calculated grades, from every school in that area, based on figures provided by the Department of Education.
- “Total number (all years)”: This column tells you the total number of students from that school who either registered for calculated grades this year or sat their Leaving Cert in that school in 2024 or previous years (or who repeated the Leaving Cert in another school), and started full-time undergraduate studies in a publicly funded, third-level institution on the island of Ireland.
- “Total percentage progression (all years)”: The percentage of students from each school who applied for calculated grades, plus those who sat the Leaving Cert in previous years and either deferred making a CAO application or repeated in another institution and started full-time undergraduate studies in a publicly funded, third-level institution on the island of Ireland.
Accuracy and fairness
To ensure the greatest possible degree of accuracy and fairness, The Irish Times uses a standardised system to compile this list. We use this system to help us spot the vast majority of errors and data holes, but there are numerous complicating factors — primarily the fact that our information is only as good as the data we receive — which means that some schools will occasionally record a lower third-level progression than is accurate.
While we are committed to improving our systems, and the quality of the data has increased over the past two decades, any significant deviation from our current system would lead to a significantly skewed and wholly inaccurate list. The Irish Times will investigate and correct errors that are brought to our attention, but regret that we cannot enter correspondence regarding how this data is compiled.
Note: the lists below only include schools with 20 or more students who sat their Leaving Cert n 2024. It does not include schools where the number of students sitting the Leaving Cert fell by 15 per cent or more between 2023 and 2024, as this has as distorting effect on progression rates.
Click here to see all related feeder school articles.
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