Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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749. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students who dropped out of university in 2022, disaggregated by university name, course family, (i.e. engineering, arts/humanities, science, and so on), stage of departure (i.e. 1st year, 2nd year, and so on) and EU vs non-EU student, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22569/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy is not available.

The key source of statistics on students in higher education is the HEA's student records system (SRS) which records enrolments as at March of every academic year, giving a single point of reference. Therefore data is not available on a national level on students who leave their programme during the course of the academic year.

The HEA publishes reports on progression, which track the proportion of students registered in first year who progress to second year. The latest report, which tracks progression from entrants in 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20 academic years, reports an overall progression rate of 87% for 2017/18, 88% for 2018/19 and 91% for 2019/20 new entrants. Analysis of the data, including a breakdown by institution, can be found on the HEA's website at the following link: hea.ie/statistics/data-for-download-and-visualisations/students/progression/progression-introduction/

The HEA also publishes data on completion rates - i.e. the proportion of students who start a course in a given year and graduate within the institution they began in. The latest data published relates to students who entered higher education in 2010 and had graduated by the end of the 2017/18 academic year. A range of analyses, including analysis by institution, can be found on the HEA website: hea.ie/statistics/data-for-download-and-visualisations/progression-completion-data/completion-analysis-200809-200910-201011-entrants/

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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750. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a list of universities which currently have an Irish language strategy/scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22570/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are autonomous and academically independent and each Higher Education Institution is responsible for its own Irish language strategy. Information would need to be sought from the HEIs directly.

However, my Department is committed to the implementation of the Official Languages Act and provision of Irish-language services to its customers, and the Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2019 is of high importance to Ireland and the life of the language in this country. With regard to the functions of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) set out in the HEA Act 2022 under Object 8 (b) the HEA sponsors the Conradh na Gailege initiative, ‘Gníomhaí Gaeilge’ which is run in conjunction with the Union of Students of Ireland.

Gníomhaí Gaeilge refers to a person who is actively engaged in using and promoting the Irish language and the initiative is an Irish language mentoring initiative open to all students in our HEIs which aims to: Build on the development, strengthening and increasing the number of Irish Language Societies and Irish Language Officers achieved over the last 20 years; Develop ‘Gníomhaí Gaeilge’ Awards at 3rd level; Develop and award a ‘Gníomhaí Gaeilge’ Certificate for active students; Set up a training, personal development and mentoring scheme for ‘Gníomhaí Gaeilge’.

The initiative is working to achieve its objectives by providing: Irish language clubs and societies with skills and mentorship in developing the use of the language within Higher Education; training workshops to equip students/officers with additional skills helpful in promoting the language, including social media, graphic design, how to find sponsorship and guest speakers for events, public speaking and writing press releases; and delivering a system of certification and awards to enhance the participation of students and Irish language societies in HEIs.

The Department of Further and Higher Education works with the Coimisinéir Teanga to ensure that public bodies are providing services to the public in Irish to meet the obligations set out in the Official Languages Act 2003 and Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021. The Official Languages Act 2003 under the auspices of the Department for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media aims to ensure the improved provision of public services through the Irish language. This is done through the provisions of the Act along with regulations which apply to all public bodies under the Act.