Demand for many university courses to stay high

POINTS requirements for entry to many university courses this autumn are expected to remain high, because of a virtual standstill in the creation of new places.

Only about 100 of the 6,300 additional university places promised by the Minister for Education over the next five years are being provided this autumn.

Although the number of applications to the Central Applications Office (CAO) is down by over 3,000 this year, the demand for college places in prestige courses with high points requirements such as medicine, pharmacy, law and veterinary medicine is likely to remain high.

As a result, points for these courses, as well as for popular courses in arts, commerce and engineering, are expected to stay at the high levels reached last year, or to fall only slightly.

In contrast, the points for entry to most diploma and certificate courses in the RTCs may fall for the second year in succession. This trend will be helped by a small expansion in the number of places in the sector.

Leaving Certificate students are due to receive their results in school on Thursday. Offers of college places from the CAO are scheduled to arrive in applicants' homes next Tuesday. The points level for entry to the various courses will be published in The Irish Times the following day.

The fall in CAO applications, which parallels a drop of more than 5,000 in the numbers applying to sit the Leaving Certificate this year, is a once-off "blip" caused by an increase in students taking the transition year programme.

However, the number of CAO applicants still greatly exceeds the number of places available in third-level colleges; last year, there were almost 63,000 applicants, of whom 32,000 accepted places. This time, there are over 59,000 applicants; the exact number of places is not known, but is expected to show a slight increase over last year.

The plan to create 6,300 much-needed university places was unveiled by the Minister for Education last September, but has been slow to take effect. Only UCC and DCU have so far announced their plans for expansion under the programme.

The requirement that colleges provide private funding to match the Government investment has created difficulties for some colleges. This in turn has slowed the opening up of new first-year places.

UCD is offering 3,273 first-year places this autumn, an increase of five over last year. This is the fourth year in a row that enrolments at Ireland's largest university have remained virtually constant.

UCC and Maynooth said their intake will be broadly the same as last year, while a UCG spokeswoman told The Irish Times the college would be taking no additional students until it received confirmation of adequate funding from the Higher Education Authority.

Trinity College is taking an extra 30 students in science and genetics, while the University of Limerick is expanding its intake in computing and information technology by 80 places. DCU expects a "modest" increase in enrolments.

Over the past year, business leaders and the IDA have expressed concern about a shortage of graduates with specialist technical qualifications, particularly in computing. The £60 million expansion plan for the universities envisages creating an additional 1,200 places in computing, 400 in biotechnology, 1,315 in languages, finance, economics and communications, and 850 in business and commerce.

Extra places would be created in all the universities; 800 each in UCD, UCG, Maynooth and DCU, and 1,000 in Trinity, UCC and the University of Limerick.