To make sense of the feeder tables, it is important to understand the component parts. There are two key numbers associated with each school listed: the total number of students who secured a first-year undergraduate place in college last year; and the total number of Leaving Cert students who sat the exam in 2025.
It is also important to note that the percentage progression rates of Ireland’s second-level schools do not solely reflect the success of last year’s Leaving Cert class in securing college places through the Central Applications Office (CAO).
In the numbers provided to The Irish Times, each third-level institution includes all incoming first-year students who attended a given school, without identifying in what year they sat the Leaving Cert.
The CAO is precluded from stating how many students from the current Leaving Cert class of 2025 secured a place by the school they attended.
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What can we understand about the make-up of last year’s cohort of school leavers and incoming first-year undergraduate students?
Data provided by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) shows that 60,937 students sat the traditional Leaving Cert in 2025, a 7.3 per cent increase on 2024. CAO data, on the other hand, shows that 51,350 students who applied for a college place last year sat the Leaving Cert in 2025. Therefore, 9,587 students or 16 per cent from the class of 2025 did not apply for a place in a CAO college.
To understand the make-up of each year’s cohort of incoming first-year students, it is worth looking at the 54,032 students who, according to CAO figures, accepted a college place last year. In round A of CAO offers in July, 4,147 applicants over 23 years of age – and obviously not current-year Leaving Cert students – secured a place. In early August, in round 0, a further 4,493 applicants who had applied holding a further education award secured their college place.
How many of the class of 2025 secured a college place in 2025?
Of the 54,032 applicants who secured a place, 45,592 did so in round one and following. All 2025 successful Leaving Certs applicants are within that number.
Also included within that cohort are more than 7,000 successful applicants from outside the Republic of Ireland. That leaves about 38,500 successful applicants from the Republic who secured their offer in round one and following.
To determine how many of them sat the Leaving Cert in 2025, we must look at another set of data.
The CAO tells us that of the 71,132 post-1985 Leaving Cert applicants, 51,350 or 72 per cent were sitting the exam in 2025.
Among the 19,782 others are many who secured their offer in rounds A and 0, but how many previous Leaving Certs are among the 38,500 number from the Republic quoted above?
If we speculate that at least 10 per cent of those who secured a place were from previous years, this will leave us with about 34,000-35,000 students from the class of 2025 progressing to college in the current year.
The percentage of progression listed in the last column is therefore not a “true rate” for the progression of the Leaving Cert 2025 class from each school to college last autumn as it incorporates those who sat the exam in previous years, having secured offers in rounds A, 0 and one and following.
How do we determine the sits number in our charts?
The data also allows the publication of the Sits number next to each school’s name. Combining this data from the CAO and SEC shows that 84 per cent of sixth-year students sitting the traditional Leaving Cert in Irish second-level schools sought a place among the institutions it represents. A further 4,507 students sat the Leaving Cert Applied each year.
Therefore, some 14,000 of last year’s Leaving Cert class decided – in consultation with their teachers, guidance counsellors and, most importantly, their parents – that applying to the CAO was not the appropriate or best career development move for them.
As access to accurate data for application numbers to the CAO from the individual schools themselves is not possible, The Irish Times includes this cohort in the Sits numbers, upon which the success percentage of each school is based.
It is worth noting that the fact that some school-leavers do not apply for a CAO college place is not an indication of failure. They may be planning to pursue a further education course through an ETB college, which is more appropriate to their career goals.
Every year, thousands of Leaving Cert students take these level-five QQI courses in post-Leaving Cert colleges. Many complete them and progress to CAO courses the following year (and are credited back to their original school in the data supplied by the colleges when they register).
In recent years, a growing number of Irish students have opted to study in continental European universities, which offer courses through the medium of English. Some of those who do not apply for a CAO place may be going abroad to continue their studies. They may also have applied to colleges in Northern Ireland or to colleges in the UK. In the past 12 years, a growing number of Irish students have opted to study in continental European Union universities with high international rankings, which offer courses through English.
There are more than 2,000 undergraduate Irish students now studying at undergraduate level in Dutch universities alone. Many more attend colleges in other EU countries.
Again, these students are not credited to their schools for progression to third-level status in The Irish Times charts as we do not have any data on such students.
Factors influencing college choice
Each year, the tables show very large numbers of students who go to college and have attended schools in socially advantaged communities. The data shows that these students tend to opt predominantly for universities and teacher-training courses.
Higher Education Authority (HEA) data shows these institutions have the lowest dropout rates (from 4 per cent in teacher-training colleges to 9 per cent in universities).
The HEA data also shows students from schools in less-advantaged communities take far fewer places in traditional universities.
Instead, many will progress to institutes of technology or recently constituted technological universities. HEA data shows dropout rates of up to 20 per cent for some courses.
Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) figures show a large proportion of successful grant applicants go to technological universities rather than traditional ones, confirming the social-class divide reflected in institutions’ student intake.
The progression tables also show how parochial our college choice is. They also indicate how the presence of a third-level college in a given geographical area increases the progression rates of students from second level to third level within commuting distance of those colleges.
Unlike in the UK, where students tend to choose to study away from home, Irish students tend to gravitate towards local colleges if they can get a place in the discipline they want.
Publishing this data is not passing judgment on the success of any school in supporting their students to get to college. For schools where both parents of many students are graduates, and where they have been supported throughout their education, getting a college place is no great reflection on the success of their school.
Alternatively, we are keenly aware that for schools in disadvantaged communities, securing third-level progression for even a small proportion of students reflects highly motivated teachers and is a fantastic achievement.
Ireland scholarship programme
One of the most interesting pieces of data relating to schools’ success in supporting students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds throughout the entire island of Ireland can be seen in the JP McManus-funded Ireland scholarship awards.
The awards, established in 2008 and worth €6,700 a year to each student, are given annually to some of Ireland’s best-performing students for the duration of their undergraduate degrees, and offer a lifeline to current sixth-year students who fear their families will never be able to afford the exorbitant costs now associated with attending third level.
In the Republic there is no application process, but qualifying students must attend a non-fee-paying school, be in receipt of a Susi grant and must also be sitting for the Leaving Certificate for the first time and cannot be in receipt of another third-level education scholarship.
In Northern Ireland there is an application process. You must be in receipt of an education maintenance allowance, must sit the A level or BTEC exam for the first time and must not be the holder of another scholarship.
A total of 125 all-Ireland scholarships from the 32 counties are awarded annually. Over the past 17 years, 1,924 successful graduates have already qualified with primary and postgraduate degrees under the scheme.
Why does The Irish Times publish these charts given the caveats?
The Irish Times publishes these progression charts annually because they are based on data provided by the SEC – total number of Sits per school, and data provided by the third level CAO colleges – the total number of former pupils of each school attending first year in 2025.
Third-level institutions point out that the data they provide originates with the SEC. It is provided for particular administrative purposes, and they say they cannot stand over the accuracy of the data if it is used for any other purpose.
The data includes every school setting in which a candidate sat for an examination and in cases where an exam was repeated; a candidate could be counted twice.
Even if the information supplied to us could be more comprehensive, these charts are the only indicators of a school’s academic performance available to the public.
Third-level colleges point out that this school’s data originates from the SEC. It is forwarded to the CAO, which forwards it to third-level institutions. As the data is provided to each university for particular administrative purposes, they say they cannot stand over the accuracy of the data if it is used for any other purpose. The data provided includes every school setting in which a candidate sat the examination, even if for only one subject.
Therefore, the data will not always reflect the number of incoming students to a third-level college, because in cases where, for example, a candidate sat the examination twice, that candidate will appear as a statistic under both institutions and be doubly entered in the data.
The double counting occurs even when the candidate repeated the examination in the institution where he or she first undertook the examination.
