Analysis: With a decline in the number taking the Leaving Cert, third-level colleges are having to work harder to fill places on many courses.
This is one of the key trends emerging from the CAO figures released yesterday. Those who have invested heavily in marketing or promoted new courses like UCD and UL have performed strongly, but other colleges have done less well.
The number of applications to NUI Galway is down by around 10 per cent. Demand is also down for places at NUI Maynooth, although this comes after years of spectacular growth. Broadly, demand for places at TCD, UCC and DCU is unchanged.
The following are some of the main trends:
r Education: the decline in applicants is a major surprise. Two factors could help to explain this trend: the popularity of the on-line, post-graduate course run by Hibernia College and the increasing number of students who are opting to study teaching in Northern Ireland and Britain.
r Medicine: the increase in demand is not unexpected given the provision of 70 additional places and the new moves towards a graduate-entry system. However, career experts warn this will have no impact on points given the huge demand.
r Nursing: the huge demand for places means that points for nursing courses will be around 450-plus again. This means that the profession will be out of bounds except for the 17 per cent of students who achieve this very strong performance.
r Art: the huge increase in demand reflects the fact that the first-year core course offered by the National College of Art and Design is on the CAO for the first time.
r Arts courses: demand is broadly unchanged from last year except at UCD where the number of applications grew by over 20 per cent.
Last night UCD said the main factor contributing to the rise in its overall figures was the introduction of UCD Horizons.
This involved a complete revision of the under-graduate curriculum and a restructuring of study into modules. Students now take 12 modules per year. They can adopt an a la carte approach to courses.
