Take-up of college offers hits a high

The number of students accepting a place in college has hit record levels.

Three in four of the CAO applicants who received a Round One offer last week are taking it up, putting acceptances at their highest ever at this stage in the process.

Last Monday, 49,408 applicants received an offer from the Central Applications Office and by yesterday's deadline, 37,171 acceptances were received.

That compares with 36,392 acceptances in the same period last year and 35,669 acceptances in Round One in 2009.

These figures come on top of earlier acceptances by other applicants, such as mature students, and brings the total number so far this year to 43,980. At this time last year, total acceptances were at 43,328. Many of the extra offers this time around were in the areas of science and technology, where there has been a surge in interest from students.

The increased uptake in Round One this year was concentrated in Level 8 honours degree programmes.

A breakdown of the figures shows an increase of 842 in Round One Level 8 acceptances over last year, compared with a decline of 210 in Level 7/6 acceptances.

The CAO will issue a second round of offers on Thursday, with a view to filling any vacancies on college courses.

Any vacancies will be posted on the CAO website.

Even when those offers are made, several colleges may still have vacant places remaining because of insufficient demand from suitably qualified applicants.


- Katherine Donnelly

Irish Independent