THE EDUCATION PROFILE: GRAHAM BAITSON, BANK OF IRELAND MILLENIUM SCHOLARGraham Baitson is an academic high flyer to whom third-level education should have been a no-brainer. But Baitson comes from Ballymun in north Dublin, where less than 5 per cent go to college. Here's how he beat the odds

GRAHAM BAITSON comes from Ballymun in north Dublin, where few families have a tradition of third-level education. No one in his family went to university. He didn't start school at the expected age because of speech difficulties and he needed a therapist to get him up to speed. A betting person wouldn't have put money on Baitson making it to the Leaving Cert.

However, Baitson has just been awarded a first-class master's degree in electronic systems from DCU, and his thesis supervisor is begging him to stay on for a PhD.

What's the secret formula that creates a student like Baitson, who can clear the hurdles that keep thousands of others out?

"I would have been happy for him to finish school," says his mother Frances. "I never pushed him or made a big deal of education. He just had a determination from the start. He loved school and couldn't spend enough time there."

Baitson was a quiet, non-confrontational child, according to his teachers. "He just got on with everyone, he never complained about this teacher or that teacher the way the other students did," says a family member. "He wasn't opinionated or pushy, he just got on with things."

Baitson belied all the accepted wisdom about intelligence - he wasn't precocious or restless or desperate for attention. "He never pushes himself forward, but he has a quiet determination and he always knows what he wants," says a friend.

Baitson went to secondary school in Ballymun Comprehensive. Despite its proximity to Dublin City University, the school has traditionally had little luck getting students into third level - largely because the expectations of students in the area differ from those of students in places such as like Foxrock, where going to college is a given. More than 80 per cent of students in parts of south Co Dublin go to university. The Dublin average is around 19 per cent. A 2002 survey by the Ballymun Partnership found that only 1.4 per cent of Ballymun residents have a degree. Less than 3 per cent of residents continued their education past 20 years of age.

Nonetheless, the staff at Ballymun Comprehensive have worked hard to keep students in education, and have experienced some success in recent years. In an attempt to address the imbalance, the Ballymun Initiative for Third Level Education (Bite) was set up, specifically targeted at children from Baitson's school. Emma Kiernan was programme director for Bite for four years, and she spotted Baitson's potential from the start.

"Baitson has always known where he's going," says Kiernan, who helped him to secure the funding he needed to put his plans into action. "He's been quietly focused since primary school. I always assumed that in order to be successful you needed to be an extrovert. Baitson changed my view. He chipped away quietly in the background, never pushing himself forward, always focused on being the best."

Baitson became the "shining star" of the Bite programme, according to Kiernan, although he would probably have succeeded in any case, his mother suggests. However, his plans to go to college could have fallen by the wayside if it wasn't for a scholarship he secured in the months leading up to his Leaving Cert.

Baitson's father is a bus driver and his mother is a housewife - paying to keep an adult child in college would have been a hard road. Baitson had shown early promise in the sciences and had expressed an interest in studying engineering at DCU. His mother said that she would make the money available no matter what it took ("I knew that not a penny spent on Baitson would ever be wasted," she says) but Baitson was not so sure.

According to a friend, Baitson worried about the pressure his family would be under if he chose university over a job. He felt that his parents had struggled enough to get him and his three older siblings through school.

Baitson and Kiernan began to make applications to every scholarship programme they could find. In the end, Baitson's exemplary academic record won him funding offers from a range of sources, but he chose to go with the largest - the Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholars Trust.

The trust was established in 2000 to support students experiencing barriers to further education. The trust has already committed over €8m and awarded 577 scholarships. For Baitson, the scholarship meant that he had an annual salary that was enough to cover his college and his living expenses. Baitson completed his Leaving Cert (covered in glory) and took his place on the bachelor honours degree in digital media engineering at DCU. He did not need to take a part-time job and was able to give all his time to his studies. Baitson seized the privilege with both hands.

"He never left the library," says his mother. "I couldn't understand it. If the library was open, he was there." Baitson is more than just an academic, however. Throughout school and university he played guitar in a series of bands and played pool at a competitive level. He has won more than 30 awards as captain of the Irish national pool team. He also won the President's Award and the Engineering Student of the Year 2006.

However, for the four years he spent studying for his degree, Baitson focused on being the best. He graduated with a first-class honours degree in 2007, and was immediately invited onto the master's programme.

Baitson's master's project was to develop a new interactive system that projects a game onto a wall, allowing a child to interact with the game using his/her shadow. Baitson invented software to solve problems associated with this kind of gaming in the past - his work was innovative and market-ready.

"I didn't know he was a scholarship student," says DCU's Dr John Mallon, his project supervisor. "I didn't know much about him at all, except that he was an exceptional student. He delivered his project to a professional level - that's rare. He's a cut above the rest. It's a huge disappointment that he's not staying on to do the PhD."

When you ask Baitson what motivated him to go to college, he says he wanted to have a salary that would buy a house big enough for a pool table. Now he says he'd like to get his mother out of rented accommodation and into a house of her own. If you push him further, however, you find that elaborate plans underpin these simple ambitions. He has quietly begun to prepare a business plan for a "side project" in web design and is also hoping to commercialise his master's project. While he says he's had enough of study, his mother is not so sure.

"He loved school so much that he would stay around to help after class. He loved college so much that he would spend Saturday and Sunday in the library, quietly and happily learning. I'd be surprised if he didn't go back. He says he's taking some time out to figure out what to do next, but once Baitson makes up his mind, nothing will stop him."

CV of an Exceptional Scholar

Name:Graham Baitson
School:Ballymun Comprehensive School
Qualifications:First class honours degree in digital media engineering, DCU, first class master's degree, electronic systems, DCU Awards: Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholarship, Gaisce President's Award, Engineering Student of the Year 2006
Hobbies:Captain of the Irish national pool team, guitarist and composer
References:
"A leading light of the digital media programme. . . a great example of what this university aspires to"
- Dr Noel O'Connor, DCU
"A very successful graduate of Ballymun - a shining star of the programme"
- Emma Kiernan, Ballymun Initiative for Third Level Education (Bite)
"A cut above the rest . . . it's a huge disappointment that he's going to industry instead of staying on the PhD"
- Dr John Mallon, DCU
"Placid, gentle, decent. . . no one has a bad word to say about him. He could have studied any subject in university and excelled. He's one in a million"
- Frances Baitson (Graham's mother)