Third-level colleges and the social partners are to be brought together to draw up proposals to deal with dramatic drop-out rates at some of the State's leading universities.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has asked the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to convene a national seminar on the issue after an HEA report showed that in some colleges more than a quarter of students failed to finish their courses.
As reported in The Irish Times yesterday, some of the highest drop-out rates were in high-tech areas like computing and science.
Dr Woods has also asked the HEA to review within 12 months the policies being put in place by the seven universities to counter the problem.
The HEA found 28 per cent of students dropped out at NUI Maynooth, 21.4 per cent at Dublin City University and 20.5 per cent at the University of Limerick.
The highest drop-out rate was in computer studies.
Dr Woods said the problem had been given priority in all colleges, including the institutes of technology.
Some universities defended their records. NUI Maynooth, which performed worst, said while its results were disappointing, it had "transformed" the university since the report was researched.
The University of Limerick (UL) said the figures were distorted because not all the students surveyed dropped out of UL. It said many transferred to other UL courses, but this was still counted as dropping out.