This morning AIRO released a new interactive mapping module that maps the catchments of all the universities and six of the IOTs using Irish Times school feeder data 2009-2011. The module is available here and the talk from HEA conference in the Aviva Stadium is here – HEA Talk 2012 2.pptx. The maps below are the 7 universities and 6 selected IoTs. What the maps show is that no one institution has a truly national catchment, with the majority of students coming from the immediate regional area. The dots are schools. On the interactive version, if you click on the school it will provide information relating to how it feeds into the HE system. The powerpoint also gives some basic demographic information on future demographic demand – it is clear that the HEIs are going to come under huge pressure as the present 0-14 age group works its way through the education system (demand is set to increase by c.30% over the next two decades).
Rob Kitchin, Eoghan McCarthy and Justin Gleeson
Ireland after NAMA 
May 25, 2012 at 11:41 am
[…] “… The maps below are the 7 universities and 6 selected IoTs. What the maps show is that no one institution has a truly national catchment, with the majority of students coming from the immediate regional area …” (more) […]
May 25, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Interesting to see just how faithfully the cachments reflect the local regions for the case of universities and institutes outside Dublin…v little student mobility in comparison to Germany, for example
May 28, 2012 at 9:45 am
What strikes me, rather, is how much smaller the catchment is for the Dublin universities than the others. Predominantly local, rather than regional in intake (of course, there is a very large local population).
May 29, 2012 at 8:17 am
As you note, Brendan, the footprint might be smaller, but that footprint holds a very large population, so one could reasonably expect it to be smaller. That said, there are many more institutions (between universities, IoTs and FE college) competing for that population.
May 29, 2012 at 12:20 am
what’s with Mayo > DCU migration
May 29, 2012 at 8:16 am
It’s still quite low at 2-5% of leaving cert students who go onto HE. The vast bulk of students are coming from the immediate hinterland. The N5/N4/M50 makes it relatively accessible and there might be certain courses only available or in limited supply that could provide a draw.
May 30, 2012 at 10:58 pm
ah well i went to dcu and there was thing about it having lots of mayo people, although i see donegal people also go to dcu,nuim and ucd in similar numbers
May 30, 2012 at 7:15 pm
There is something for NUI Maynooth on the geog dept blog for 2009 and 2010: http://nuimgeography.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/366/ – – http://nuimgeography.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/maynooths-feeder-schools-an-update/
May 30, 2012 at 7:16 pm
sorry, that should say ‘something similar for NUI Maynooth’…
June 2, 2012 at 12:13 pm
It would be helpful if you could the same for QUB and UU.
September 3, 2012 at 5:06 pm
[…] mapping catchments for Universities and IT’s across the island. See an earlier post on this here or view the the Feeder Schools mapping tool here. Share […]