One in five pharmacy students, one in four engineering students and nearly half of all maths students are now achieving first-class honours degrees from their universities, Higher Education Authority figures for 2004 show.

Twenty-eight per cent of students taking physical sciences, 27% of civil engineering students and 20% of computer science graduates all received firsts in their chosen subject. In comparison, just seven per cent of humanities, arts and education students made the top grade, indicating that marking trends have not changed in these areas.

Engineering, manufacturing, construction and science students are most likely to do well out of all the disciplines, with 23% of these graduates gaining first-class honours in 2004.

On average, 13% of all students got a first in 2004, but when broken down by college, these results varied considerably. Dublin City University (DCU) gave a whopping 22% of all its students a firstclass honours degree in 2004.

When compared with the other university averages - UCD 9%, Trinity 15%, NUI Galway 15%, University of Limerick 12% - this is extremely high. The closest to DCU was UCC, which gave 17% of its students a first in 2004.

Thirty two per cent of DCU science graduates gained top marks, with 40% of physics students and 64% of maths students graduating with a first-class honours degree.

DCU computer science students were twice as likely to get a first than their UCD counterparts.

"When we looked at the statistics we were a little confused that we were higher in science and applied languages, " said DCU vice president Anne Scott, who emphasised that DCU tends to have a higher focus on science and business subjects than other universities.

"But we believe it is partly because we have focused on looking at different learning supports for our students. This increases the pressure to work, while supporting student learning and we are very proud of our highly-motivated students."

Although 20% of all pharmacy students gained a first in 2004, other medical graduates fared much worse. Only 3.7% of all medicine students graduated with a first-class honours degree, while 52% scraped a pass. Dental students are the worst in the country.

Only 1.4% achieved top marks and 64% just managed to get a pass degree.