New research by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) shows that the proportion of students who attended private or disadvantaged schools varies significantly across individual higher education institutions.
The Irish Times has reported that nationally, a similar number of graduates previously attended a disadvantaged or Deis school (10 per cent) or fee-paying school (11 per cent).
However, at university level, there were more graduates who attended fee-paying schools.
Both Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and UCD ranked highest for the number of graduates who attended fee-paying schools, 26 per cent and 27 per cent respectively.
This contrasts with the number of graduates who attended a Deis school before TCD and UCD, 6 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively.
NUI Maynooth, DCU, NUI Galway and University of Limerick were all found to have higher proportions of graduates that attended a Deis school compared to fee-paying schools.
The research also found that institutes of technology had more graduates who attended Deis schools than fee-paying schools.
The study says the type of second-level school that graduates previously attended was used in a new report which tracked graduates’ earnings as a proxy measurement of socio-economic background.
