Dublin City University (DCU) graduates are more than twice as likely to obtain a first-class honour in their primary degree than their counterparts at University College Dublin (UCD), which awards the lowest percentage of "firsts" of all seven universities, new Higher Education Authority (HEA) figures reveal.
In a finding likely to prompt concerns that Irish universities may be "dumbing down", the figures for 2004 also reveal the percentage of first-class and upper second-class honour degrees awarded to undergraduate students has increased since 1998 in each university.
For example, the number of graduating students awarded a first at DCU has increased by some 10 per cent since 1998, mirroring a trend witnessed at second level in recent years.
By far the highest percentage of firsts - 22 per cent - was also awarded to graduating students at DCU in 2004, compared to just 9 per cent in UCD, the previously unpublished figures show. At University College Cork (UCC), 17 per cent of students were awarded a first, followed by approximately one in seven students at both Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and NUI Galway.
As students prepare to receive Leaving Certificate results on Wednesday, the figures reveal 11 per cent of undergraduate students at NUI Maynooth and 12 per cent of students at the University of Limerick (including Mary Immaculate College) were awarded a first in 2004.
The percentage of students obtaining first-class honours at UCC has risen by approximately 8 per cent since 1998, and by approximately 6 per cent at both Trinity College and NUI Galway.
Similarly, the number of upper second-class honour degrees awarded by Irish universities has also increased in recent years.
In 2003/2004, 56 per cent of all successful students at TCD obtained this award, compared to just 14 per cent six years previously. At the University of Limerick, 36 per cent of all successful students were awarded a 2.1 degree, compared with 28 per cent six years before.
Overall, the new HEA figures show more than half of all students graduating with a primary degree from a HEA-funded institution obtained either a first- or an upper second-class honours degree in 2004.
The figures have been compiled using a new computerised student records system which is seen as a breakthrough for policymakers. This system will include the Institutes of Technology for the first time next year.
When broken down, the figures also show significant variations in the number of firsts awarded by course, discipline and university. For example, 23 per cent of science graduates in TCD got a first, compared with just 11 per cent in its arts/humanities faculty.
Similarly, approximately half of all psychology graduates at TCD, NUI Maynooth and NUI Galway obtained a first, but only 13 per cent did so at UCC.
Today's figures do not include undergraduate students who failed their exams, as these are not returned by universities to the HEA.
Further figures to be published in an upcoming report for all institutions funded by the HEA in 2004 show medicine and dentistry students are among those least likely to obtain a first- or second-class primary degree.
Some 52 per cent of all medicine graduates and 64 per cent of dentistry graduates in 2004 only passed their degree, with just 5 per cent of medicine graduates and 1 per cent of dentistry graduates obtaining a first- or upper second-class degree. By comparison, 83 per cent of all law graduates obtained a 2.1 degree or higher.
In a boost to the Government's efforts to create a "knowledge-based" economy, the report reveals enrolment on PhD programmes has increased by 56 per cent between 2001 and last year.
Despite a falling school-going population, overall graduate enrolment increased by 21 per cent between 2000 and 2004, with the number of CAO acceptances also increasing by 11 per cent.