Who graduates from Irish distance university education?
Delaney, LorraineORCID: 0000-0003-2422-903X
(2015)
Who graduates from Irish distance university education?
European journal of open, distance and E-Learning, 18
(1).
ISSN 1027-5207
This paper outlines results from an online survey of recent distance graduates. The study, based
in Dublin City University (DCU) addresses a gap in the research on this cohort of graduates.
Findings indicate that distance graduates are primarily from lower socio economic backgrounds, a
group largely under-represented in full-time university education. Significantly, 30% of survey
respondents came from a skilled manual background. A large percentage (39% N = 61) of
graduates had never accessed any form of higher education before. An equally large percentage
(N = 62) had accessed full-time higher education previously, but at a lower level than the
honours primary degree they obtained through distance learning. Implications regarding the role
of distance education in improving access to university education and social mobility are
discussed. Finally, this paper seeks to establish relevance between knowledge of distance
graduates and doing things better for first time distance learners.