Irish Students' Drinking Linked to Dropout Rates --

May 29, 2001 3:45 PM

Irish Students' Drinking Linked to Dropout Rates -- 38 gallons of beer per year on average leading to a almost 1/3 student dropout .. but its ok because "per capita consumption of alcohol was higher at the bar in the Irish parliament than in student pubs."
posted by stbalbach (9 comments total)

"Some campuses are losing almost one third of their students, education officials said. But the overall dropout rate in Ireland is in line with international trends."

So what is the story anyway? I am not a frequent contributor to MeFi, but I check in and read it quite a bit, and usually I hold my tongue, but a post with a catchy headline and a five sentence story doesn't really have any substance.

If you are interested in news from Ireland there are a number of actual newspapers available online though.
Irish Times
Belfast Telegraph
Irish News

I know, I should just be nice and I don't have to read a link if I don't want to (or post it to metatalk) but it's a signal/noise thing, it takes as much time to click a link, see that it's a five sentence blurb, and back up, as it does to actually read the five sentences.
posted by chrismc at 4:26 PM on May 29, 2001

I agree with chrismc that the article isn't too strong, but the point is still there - the Irish have good beer. Or maybe I'm completely missing the point.
posted by GirlFriday at 4:42 PM on May 29, 2001

Correlation doesn't imply causation. In fact, "Students Drink" is possibly the non-headline of the decade.
posted by holgate at 5:08 PM on May 29, 2001

that is less than eight twelve ounce beers per week. One beer per day is causing massive drop outs? Hard to swallow!
posted by drunkkeith at 6:10 PM on May 29, 2001

*burp!*
posted by ZachsMind at 12:09 AM on May 30, 2001

Based on my one year in college (in Cavan, in the northeast of Ireland) there is nothing to do in a lot of college towns - but drink. Maybe if there was more to do apart from going to the pub all the time, the rate of drop out would be less. Certainly there was a load of drinking done by the people I went to college with, and there were drop outs.
posted by tomcosgrave at 2:32 AM on May 30, 2001

Tom: any idea of what percentage head to university after the Leaving Cert? Normally, high acceptance rates are a better indicator of a "dropout climate", like the French college system which takes on everyone to get the money, then dumps a load during the first year...
posted by holgate at 4:00 AM on May 30, 2001

Not sure Holgate...I looked but I can't find anything. Most middle class and above go on to Uni. Working class rarely do.

I didn't go to University myself, I had a lousy leaving cert and just did a one year course and got into the workplace. Most of my friends (most of them middle class) all have degrees now, or are in their final years.

And I will go to University - as a mature student, in a couple of years time.
posted by tomcosgrave at 4:30 AM on May 30, 2001

I don't know about Ireland, but drinking is extremely common here in the UK.. especially in student-circles. I know lots of students who regularly drink at least twenty pints of beer a week, or the equivalent of spirits (liquor). It's just the European way. While many Americans frown on booze, probably because of prohibition days, Europeans are hooked on it.
posted by wackybrit at 5:23 AM on May 30, 2001