Gender

For all three cohorts (first year undergraduate, final year undergraduate and taught postgraduate), female respondents indicated they have considered withdrawing at a higher rate than males. The gender gap was largest amongst first year undergraduate respondents, whereby 37.2% of females had considered withdrawing, compared to 32.5% of males.

Age group

Amongst first year undergraduate respondents, respondents aged 23 years and under indicated that they had considered withdrawing at a higher rate (35.8%) than respondents aged 24 years and over (32.3%).

Amongst final year undergraduate respondents, respondents aged 24 years and over indicated that they had considered withdrawing at a higher rate (48.1%) than respondents aged 23 years and under (42.8%).

Mode of study

For both final year undergraduate and first year undergraduate respondents, full-time respondents indicated that they had considered withdrawing at a higher rate than part-time/ remote respondents. For first year undergraduate respondents, the difference was particularly pronounced, with an 8.9 percentage-point difference.

In contrast, for taught postgraduate respondents, part-time/ remote respondents indicated that they had considered withdrawing at a higher rate (32.2%) compared to full-time respondents (26.0%).

Country of Domicile

In all three cohorts (first year undergraduate, final year undergraduate, and taught postgraduate), Irish domiciled respondents indicated that they had considered withdrawing at a higher rate than internationally domiciled respondents. This gap was largest amongst taught postgraduate respondents, whereby one in three Irish domiciled respondents had considered withdrawing (33.2%) compared to 20.0% of internationally domiciled respondents.

Programme type

For both first year undergraduate and final year undergraduate respondents, those studying Undergraduate Ordinary Degrees indicated that they had considered withdrawing at the highest rate. This was followed by Undergraduate Honours Degree respondents. Those studying Undergraduate Certificate/ Diplomas were least likely to have seriously considered withdrawing.

Amongst taught postgraduate respondents, respondents of Graduate Certificates/ Diplomas indicated that they had considered withdrawing at a higher rate (30.6%) than Masters Taught respondents (28.3%).

Field of study

Amongst first year undergraduate respondents, Arts and humanities respondents indicated that they had considered withdrawing at the highest rate compared to other fields of study (37.8%). This was followed by Services respondents (37.6%). Education respondents were least likely to have seriously considered withdrawing (30.4%).

For final year undergraduate respondents, more than half of ICT respondents had seriously considered withdrawing from their programme (50.8%). This was followed by Services respondents (49.6%) and Arts and humanities respondents (49.3%). Those studying Business, administration, and law were least likely to have seriously considered withdrawing from their programme (38.0%).

Amongst taught postgraduate respondents, those who were studying Services indicated that they had considered withdrawing at the highest rate compared to other fields of study (38.4%). This was followed by Education respondents (34.7%), and Social sciences, journalism, and information respondents (32.9%). ICT respondents were least likely to have considered withdrawing compared to the other fields of study (24.4%).