{"id":192519,"date":"2025-12-15T06:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T06:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/192519\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T06:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T06:50:11","slug":"west-belfast-has-lowest-university-entry-rate-in-northern-ireland-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/192519\/","title":{"rendered":"West Belfast has lowest university entry rate in Northern Ireland \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Belfast<\/a> had the lowest proportion of young people entering universities and colleges in Northern Ireland in 2025, according to latest statistics. <\/p>\n

The entry rate into higher education institutions among 18-year-olds in the constituency sat at 29.7% for 2025 \u2013 almost 9% below the Northern Ireland average. <\/p>\n

The latest statistics from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)<\/a> were released this week for the 2025 undergraduate admissions period. <\/p>\n

Read more: Belfast all-girl grammar top of the list in annual school rankings<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"Calls<\/a>\"PSNI<\/a><\/p>\n

UCAS handles admissions applications for the majority of university courses in the UK, including those at Queen\u2019s University Belfast and Ulster University. <\/p>\n

It also handles applications for a number of courses at institutions such as Belfast Met, however they also directly handle their admissions for other courses. <\/p>\n

St Mary\u2019s University College, which is located in west Belfast, administers its own applications. <\/p>\n

Entry rates represent the proportion of 18-years-olds accepted into higher education (HE) institutions on UCAS courses in relation the total number living in a constituency. <\/p>\n

The West Belfast parliamentary constituency was the lowest in 2025, followed closely by Upper Bann (29.9%).<\/p>\n

North Belfast (32.5%), Newry and Armagh (33.1%) and Foyle (35.7%) were the constituencies with the next lowest entry rates. <\/p>\n

Reacting to the figures, Sinn F\u00e9in MLA for west Belfast Danny Baker told The Irish News that elements of the education system are \u201cset up to fail working-class children\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to our education system, there is no escaping the fact that elements of it are set up to fail working-class children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA prime example of this is academic selection, which has been proven to particularly affect young people from working-class and disadvantaged backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlongside ending academic selection at age 11, we must continue to support widening access and participation programmes which can help young people overcome barriers to enter third level education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile working to strengthen all levels of education, we must also remove practices that only serve to deepen inequality and ultimately undermine the goal of an inclusive, high-performing education system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Baker added that higher education was \u201cjust one option\u201d available to young people, with many also choosing to enter training, apprenticeships or employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people must be supported to choose the path to success that best fits their needs and talents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWest Belfast is also the proud home to many fantastic education institutions, such as St Mary\u2019s University and St Dominic\u2019s, as well as high-quality training centres and jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, almost one-in-two 18-year-olds in North Down (49.3%) were accepted onto courses this year \u2013 the highest rate of any constituency in the north. <\/p>\n

Belfast South and Mid Down (47.6%), East Antrim (46.9%), South Antrim (43.5%) and Strangford (40.9%) were the areas with the next highest entry rates.<\/p>\n

Of the 18-year-olds who applied to course in 2025, South Antrim had the highest acceptance rate at 74.2%, while Foyle had the lowest rate at 62.8% \u2013 almost 5% below the next constituency. <\/p>\n

Overall, Northern Ireland was the region with the third-highest entry rate in 2025 at 38.3%, ranking behind London (51.4%) and England\u2019s south east (38.9%).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Belfast had the lowest proportion of young people entering universities and colleges in Northern Ireland in 2025,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[103154,835,61,60,43,99985,103153,96724,7370,103152],"class_list":{"0":"post-192519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-admissions","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-queen-s-university","14":"tag-ucas","15":"tag-ulster-university","16":"tag-universities","17":"tag-west-belfast"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}