Recent reports have indicated that a very high percentage of university students are dropping out of science and technology courses after their first year in college. In DCU, heralded as the cutting-edge technology campus, drop-out rates of 39% have been reported, while in UCD a drop-out rate of 26% was reported and countrywide, the seven universities averaged 20%.

SO what has brought on this rise in the drop-out rates in science…?

One camp says the increase in due to the “dumbing-down” of the leaving cert exam combined with significant drop in points for science subjects especially. The points for science in UCD in 2008 were 300, compared to 440 the year I started my science degree there… Quite a drop.

Reading in the Irish Times, Tom Boland, chief executive of the Higher Education Authority, recently voiced fears of declining standards, with what he called “spoon-fed” second-level students struggling to cope at third level.

The other side of the argument is that maybe student life is too easy, too much of a party and that those who perform badly in first year, due to the excitement of genuine party-time, do not have the funds to go back and repeat the year.

The reality is that there is a massive over supply of science graduates on the market – I think the govt have forgot that “quality” is better than quantity… Raise the points for university to what they were 10 years ago and make the leaving cert harder, then we will get a real marker of how smart of economy is.

-       Eamonn