Students are returning to traditional third-level courses like teaching and medicine and drifting away from business courses, according to confidential CAO figures.
Application figures for 2003 show that applications for business and administration courses have declined by 6 per cent. However, applications for primary teaching are up by precisely the same figure.
The trend is similar at second-level where applications for the higher diploma in education have increased by 30 per cent from 2,300 last year to over 3,000 this year.
Nursing and health care work was also a popular choice among students with over 5,000 selecting these courses as their first preference.
The new figures may indicate the first sign of a recovery in technology and engineering courses. After years of decline, these areas - which include many computer courses - show a 6 per cent increase in applications.
In recent months, Government agencies and others have put much effort into rekindling student interest in these areas.
Commenting on the figures, Mr Brian Mooney, president of the Institute of Guidance Councillors, said students are returning to more traditional areas because of the economic uncertainty.
On computers, he said there was evidence that the great effort made by guidance councillors, engineers and other to "spread the good news" about the job opportunities in the sector was having an impact. The new figures appear to indicate that the much-promised "demographic dividend" has still to have a major impact on CAO trends.
There is a general expectation that entry points for college places will plummet because of the decline in the school-leaving population.
Only about 44,000 will do the Leaving Cert by 2007, compared to upwards of 60,000 in recent years. But the CAO figures suggest that more and more adults are returning to college as mature students.
The rising number of mature students is compensating for the drop in school leavers. This might mean that the projected drop in college entry points will not be dramatic in the next five years.
Among the colleges, UCD is now the most popular college. A total of 7,412 students listed it as their first preference, although this is down by 4 per cent on last year. In contrast, applications for TCD are up 8 per cent to 7,023.
Other trends this year include the remarkable increase in applications for art and design courses, up 127 per cent to 828.
Another striking trend is the increase in courses which traditionally require very high CAO points.
Applications for medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, medicine and physiotherapy have all increased. This tends to reflect recent research from the MRBI which indicated that students are guided in making their CAO applications by the potential earnings.
The prospect of earning a good income is much more important to students in course selection than the stature of the college or its location.
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