Global Business (USA) has the highest percentage of students graduating with firsts, with 100% of students receiving 1.1’s in 2015.
The four year course requires 590 points for entry, which keeps in line with the high standard coming out of the course. In 2013, 2014 and 2016 only one person in each year graduated with a 2.1 degree, while the other graduates all received a 1.1 degree.
In comparison, Business Studies has one of the lowest rates of students graduating with 1.1 degrees despite being one of the largest courses in DCU. Last year, only 15 out of 148 students graduated with a first. This figure, however, has been steadily rising since 2014 in conjunction with the increasing number of students in the class, from 12 out of 130 student attaining a 1.1 degree in 2014.
BSc in Education and Training students are also at the bottom of the scale. In 2016, none of the 56 students graduating acquired a 1.1 degree, while 34 graduated with a 2.1 degree and 18 with a 2.2. This number has dropped significantly since 2014, which saw 21 out of 89 students graduating with a 1.1 degree.
It is also common in Communications that more students graduate with a 2.1 degree rather than a 1.1. Despite the fact that the amount of students enrolled in Communications has been increasing steadily since 2012, less and less students have been graduating with 1.1 degrees. 2016 saw only 4 out of 101 students leaving with a 1.1, while 66 students graduated with a 2.1.
There has been a positive increase in both Psychiatric Nursing and Computer Applications graduate degrees however. 13 Psychiatric Nursing undergrad students graduated with a 1.1 degree in 2016, in comparison to just one student the year before. The number of Computer Application students graduating with 1.1 degrees has been steadily increasing since 2014 with just 5 students graduating with this degree in comparison to 21 in 2016. However, there is still a higher number of students graduating with 2.1 and 2.2 degrees in Computer Applications, with 31 students graduating with a 2.1 degree and 16 graduating with a 2.2 degree in 2016.
Out of the 1,800 students who graduated in 2016, 1062 graduated with a 2.1 degree, 406 with a 2.2 and 262 with a 1.1, with Computer Applications producing the highest number of students attaining this degree.
Clara Hickey
Image Credit: BDI