Trinity students are having less but safer sex than other Irish students, according to a new study by Campus.ie.
Of the 547 Trinity students who took part in the survey, 28% said they are not sexually active. This compares to a national average of 21%. While 98% of Trinity students said that they use contraception, only 75% of sexually active Irish students use contraception.
When asked how many times a week they go out to a nightclub, bar or house party, just over 1 in 5 of Trinity students (22%) said that they do not go out, while 59% go out once a week, 18% go out twice a week and 2% go out 3 or more times a week.
Although 1 in 10 of Trinity students do not drink alcohol, the survey found that 7% consume above the weekly HSE maximum guidelines of 11 standard drinks for women, and 17 for men.
The percentage of Trinity students who have never taken drugs was 6% lower than the national average of 58%, with 27% saying that they have tried marijuana, and 11% saying that they have taken ecstasy.
The survey also found that a significant percentage of Trinity students are dissatisfied with the quality of their education. 59% of students surveyed said they have made or would like to make either a formal or informal complaint about their standard of teaching. 45% of respondents have either dropped out or have considered dropping out. However, 71% of Trinity students said that they consider the standard of their teaching to be “mostly good”.
The majority of students surveyed (59%) said they are “very confident”, “absolutely certain” or “quite certain” that they would get a job on completing their current course. 29% said that they plan to emigrate after graduation.
The survey also found that more Trinity students (16%) identify as LGBT than the national average of 11%. Close to 1% identify as either non-binary or other.
The results of the national survey can be found here.
