Record 58,000 get college offer after CAO second round

The number of offers for college places has hit a new record in this year's CAO second round.

A total of 58,261 CAO applicants have received an offer to date, over 500 more than this time last year.

The CAO second round, published today, included offers to 1,200 people who had not yet received one this year.

That is well below the 2,000 people who got a round two offer in 2009 -- but only because so many offers were made in round one this year. While the overall demand for a college place was below the 2010 record, the number of offers and acceptances to date are higher.

The surge in demand for places in science and technology courses is part of the reason for the bumper 2011 offering.

Students seeking certainty pursued courses where the Government and employers have promised jobs -- and in some cases colleges opened more places.

Despite the record offering, almost 18,000 of the 76,238 applicants have still received no offer from the CAO and the chance to do so after today is limited.

Last year, a total of 58,939 applicants got an offer by the end of the CAO season, which continues until mid-October.

Already, 43,980 people have accepted a CAO offer in 2011, up from 43,348 this time last year and 42,917 in 2009.

The figures show the appetite from school-leavers and mature students for a third-level qualification in order to get and keep a job.

There were no major surprises in today's second round.

There was a slight easing in the points for entry to medicine in some colleges, after they hit a record in the first round.

Points for undergraduate medicine dropped in four of the five medical schools by a point or two, which is welcome news for the small numbers getting offers in round two. It remained unchanged at 734 points in UCC.

Prestigious
Dentistry in Trinity dropped from 575 to 570*, but remained unchanged in UCC from its first round at 570*.

Other prestigious healthcare courses, such as radiography and veterinary medicine, also held their own.

Teaching held steady, as did nursing, where offers were made. There were high points drops in some DIT level eight engineering degrees, down over 114 points in one case, and 110 points in another, from 430 to 320.

In line with the falling demand after the collapse of the building industry, architecture in UCD also dropped 15 points to 470.

NUI Maynooth made offers to fill the remaining 3pc of places available.

Similar to other colleges, NUI Maynooth made some offers in engineering, following the recently held second chance maths examination.


- Katherine Donnelly

Irish Independent