by Kathy Masterson
ALMOST one third of a group of Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) students who took part in the recent National Student Survey say they plan to emigrate after graduation, while a further 50 per cent say they are actively considering it.
Just under 17 per cent of the LIT students surveyed by student website Campus.ie said they had no plans to leave Ireland when they complete their course.
Twenty-three per cent of those who are considering emigration say they are doing so due to a perceived lack of jobs in their chosen field, while 55 per cent said they wanted to travel.
A total of 42 per cent of the LIT students surveyed said they had considered dropping out of their course, a similar number to that recorded at UL in the same survey.
Twenty per cent said it was because they didn’t like their course, 10 per cent cited financial reasons and a further 10 per cent said it was due to mental health problems.
Regarding financial support, more than 62 per cent of LIT students said they did not do any part-time work. Twenty per cent of the students surveyed said they relied on parents for financial support while 38.9 per cent relied mainly on a student grant.
Just over half of the LIT students who took part in the survey (54 per cent) said they had never experimented with illegal drugs. Of those who had, marijuana was the most popular drug (28.8 per cent) while 6.7 per cent said they had tried ecstasy.
In terms of sexual health, 84.7 per cent of LIT students said they were sexually active, although 81 per cent of these said they had never had an STI test.
Condoms were listed as the most popular form of contraception (44 per cent), while five per cent of the students surveyed said they never used any form of contraception.
