Just 323 Trinity students took part in Erasmus or study abroad programmes in the 2016/17 academic year. This is in comparison to the 806 inbound students to Trinity, according to figures released by the Academic Registry (AR) to Trinity News.
It follows the announcement by the EU to expand the Erasmus programme earlier this month, with 4,000 Irish students estimated to take part this year.
In separate figures released by AR, more than 34,867 calls were answered throughout the year, with €139 million worth of transactions processed. Within the same time period, there were 153,942 interactions between AR and students, 37,383 student visits to the Service Desk with a 94% satisfaction rating, 2,364 processed and resolved student cases, and 46,410 undergraduate and 5,986 postgraduate admissions applications processed.
In an interview with Trinity News, Service Desk Manager Jonathan Lynch stated that the average wait time for walk-ins last year was three minutes, beating the service’s set target of five minutes. Average wait time for calls was two and a half minutes, with 95% of the 47,500 emails sent by students last year answered within their target time. As for the remaining 5%, these are issues that “take time,” Lynch said. “We might have to consult with a different department,” he said.
AR registered 17,860 students with 5,943 graduations in the 2016/17 academic year, and 19,439 individual examination papers administered. AR organised a total of 107 examination venues, with 44 main venues and 63 venues for students with disabilities.
60% of Trinity students rate AR as excellent or above average, a figure Lynch says the AR team are “very proud of”. In figures released by AR of a survey that was filled out by 2,791 students in November, representing 16.5% or the student population, almost 11% of respondents rated the service below average or poorly.
AR cited “significant improvements” across “the whole range of AR activities” with 19 out of 24 activities showing double digit improvements. Improvements were seen in the garda vetting process, with 63.76% rating the service above average or higher, corresponding to a 20.84% increase. There was a 19.6% increase in students rating the registration process as excellent or above average at 62.3%, with 51.82% rating the processing of student cases to be above average or higher.
AR was founded in 2013, with the aim of amalgamating several College services. AR is part of the Corporate Services Division, with an aim of being “an integrated, flexible team with a professional service ethos supporting all stages of the student lifestyle”.
Source:-trinitynews.
