College to tackle high rates of drop-outs

Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) has hired a full-time retention officer to try to stem the tide of drop-outs, after it was revealed the college was haemorrhaging students.

A report last week suggests GMIT has one of the highest student drop-out rates of all Institutes of Technology in the country.

It shows NUI Galway, meanwhile, is the university with the second highest level of students who drop out of degree courses.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) study of progression in Irish higher education has set alarm bells ringing, in particular, at GMIT who have moved to address the problem.

The knock-on effect of high drop-out rates is plunging incomes as institutes lose out on fees of students who do not progress.

The report, which tracked first-years’ progression between 2012 and 2014, showed that GMIT has a 43% drop-out rate for higher certificate level courses, second only to Tralee IT (44%).

GMIT had a 33% drop-out rate for ordinary degree courses, the highest for ITs; and it also had a non-progression rate of 26% for honours degree courses, the highest in the country compared with ITs.

For more on this story and the drop-out rates, see this week’s Galway City Tribune