This publication examines outcomes for graduates of Higher Education courses in Ireland. Areas covered include employment, re-enrolment in education, the industry sectors that graduates work in and the earnings that they receive over time. The graduations included here are those which were completed at institutions that are funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA). Higher Education courses are designated levels of 6 to 10 on the National Framework of Qualifications.
This is a follow up to previous reports on Higher Education Outcomes and includes new graduates from 2017, 2018 and 2019 as well as new outcomes information up to 2020. This report also for the first time includes data disaggregated by institution and also details the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and related public health measures on the outcomes for 2019 graduates.
This report found that over 80% of 2019 graduates were in substantial employment in the first year after graduation with median earnings of €555 per week. This compares with 83% of 2018 graduates with median earnings of €530 per week. Over one-quarter (27%) of 2019 graduates were in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) for a period in 2020.
The most common industries for new graduates in 2019 were Professional & Scientific, Wholesale & Retail, Health and Education with over half of graduates in substantial employment in the first year after graduation working in these industries.
Approximately 29% of those graduating in 2019 had re-enrolled in higher education the following year, which is up from 26% for the 2018 graduation cohort but down from 33% for the 2010 cohort.
This report was developed in collaboration with the HEA and is an example of the policy-relevant research projects the CSO are developing as part of the CSO’s leadership role of the Irish Statistical System. Our goal is to maximise the variety and volume of data available to provide high quality information to the Government, businesses and citizens.
Under the auspices of the Statistics Act, 1993 and in compliance with all relevant data protection legislation, the CSO is in a unique position to gather and link administrative data sources held by Government Departments and Agencies and evaluate their potential for statistical use.
This analysis was carried out using a statistical framework known as the Educational Longitudinal Database (ELD) developed by the CSO. This framework is produced by integrating datasets from the Education sector with other public sector datasets which describe graduate outcomes in subsequent years. See Background Notes and Methodology for further information.
The National Data Infrastructure (NDI) plays an integral part in facilitating the CSO to develop new and improved statistical products for the benefit of the citizen and policymaker. The core concept of the NDI involves the collection, maintenance and storage, on all public sector data holdings, of the associated PPSN, Eircode and Unique Business Identifier whenever they are relevant to Public Sector Body transactions with customers. This supports the development of targeted policy interventions. What is needed to achieve this, in most cases, is collection of the PPSN and home Eircode in transactions with people and the UBI and business Eircode in transactions with businesses.
Go to next Chapter: What Do Graduates Do?
