Despite the fact that Ireland’s population is becoming more ethnically diverse every week, we still have no agreed system for identifying new groups in the Irish population. While there are some problems with recording an individual’s ethnicity, it is nevertheless essential to have data on the experiences of sub-groups of the population. This information is basic to the production of evidence and information to identify and remedy inequalities or problems experienced by individuals because they are members of a specific minority group.
With this in mind, the Education & Management Analysis Office in DCU (formerly Statistical Services) and the Higher Education Equality Unit are running a joint project to develop and pilot a system to accurately classify the major ethnic minorities in Ireland. It is intended that through this piloting process, a means will be determined of assessing participation rates in Irish Third Level Institutions of different ethnic groups, which will be available for use by all Third Level Institutions and other organisations in Ireland. In some ways the diversity of University populations in terms of students and staff make them ideal initial case studies for the development of a system that could be used nationally in a very broad range of institutions. Existing or new ethnic minorities with very limited access to third level education are obviously likely to be excluded but it is hoped that these groups can be covered with additional research after the first phase of the project.
DCU agreed to carry out a survey of a sample of students registering for the 2001 academic year. Students were to be asked to define their ethnicity and give some other profile information to identify core classifications for a monitoring system. Following initial meetings between DCU and the HEEU, a meeting was set up with the 'Minority Ethnic Groups Advisory Committee' to review and contribute to the proposed system of categories. The main outcome of this meeting was that no suggested categories were included in the survey and students were asked to define their own ethnicity based on some brief examples of how this might be done.
The survey was carried out in September 2000. There were 1,497 responses from a target group of approximately 2,000. The response rate was high because students were asked to complete the forms while waiting to register, and someone was always present to answer questions. Because the key responses were unclassified and therefore written by hand, it took some time to get all of these loaded up into a database. The data are now complete and ready for analysis. The information recorded includes Gender, Age, Self-defined ethnicity, the ethnic groups respondents would like to see included on official forms, citizenship and country of birth. The first phase of the analysis, identifying the groups outlined and suggested by the student respondents, will be complete by the end of February. At this point we will be seeking advice from groups not covered in the survey responses on accurate and acceptable nomenclature to identify their members in official forms. It is hoped that this exercise will be complete and a draft report written up before the summer of 2001.
For further information please contact:
Margaret O'Flanagan, Education and Management Analysis Officer, Registry, DCU. Tel: 01-7005465 margaret.oflanagan@dcu.ie
Mike FitzGibbon, Minority Ethnic Groups Project, Higher Education Equality Unit, 5 Bloomfield Terrace, western Road, Cork. Tel 021-4093657 megs@ucc.ie
Table of Contents of Newsletter 10