For the past five years, inflated grades – artificially hiked as a result of estimated and calculated marks during the pandemic – have hauled CAO points up with them.
From next year, however, Minister for Education Norma Foley has said grades should gradually begin to return to normal.
At the same time, the number of entry routes to third level outside the CAO process is rising. Apprenticeship figures are up, and more students are engaging in Post Leaving Certificate courses. Meanwhile, a new option, tertiary courses from the National Tertiary Office, allows students to bypass the CAO by taking one year of their course as a PLC before moving on to third level.
More students are choosing to head to college in European countries, where fees and entry requirements are lower, there is a lower cost of living and courses are offered through English.
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Here, the courses most heavily impacted by grade inflation have, primarily, been higher points degrees such as medicine, veterinary and some finance courses. A student can’t get more than 625 points, which has meant that many high-achieving students lost out on random selection; this is a devastating outcome for a student who gave as much as anyone could, got as much as anyone could, and still found it wasn’t enough.
In response to this pressure on high-points courses, many universities, including but not limited to the University of Galway, Maynooth University and Trinity College, have expanded the number of places available on first year courses.
Finally, the planned opening of three new veterinary colleges will triple the number of college places available and almost certainly lower points.
Collectively, these trends and developments suggest that this year may be a high-water mark for CAO points, and they may start to fall in coming years. There are even tentative signs that this is happening already: at Trinity College, traditionally the third level with the highest CAO points requirement, there has been an average drop of nine points across level eight single honours courses this year.
Here, we look at some standout trends this year. It’s worth pointing out that rises or falls in CAO points are nothing to do with a course’s quality: points are predicated solely on supply and demand, and could have fallen because a third level has added more places.
Health science and veterinary medicine
CAO points for health science courses and veterinary medicine are the most eagerly anticipated.
These are the courses which, generally, have the highest points but are also most likely to be subject to random selection.
Indeed, of the 23 courses where random selection applied this year, eight of them were in the area of health or veterinary science.
These include pharmacy at RCSI, up from 601 to 613 points; pharmacy at UCC, which stays steady at 613 points; occupational therapy at UCC, down 11 points to 566; applied psychology at Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, down from 414 to 389 points; medicine at RCSI, down two points to 732; dental science at Trinity, which stays steady at 625 points; veterinary medicine at UCD stays steady at 589; midwifery at Dundalk IT falls from 453 to 413 points; medicine at the University of Galway, which falls one point to 728; and physiotherapy at the University of Limerick, up one point to 590.
Points for medicine at UCC are down two to 730, down three to 738 at Trinity College and down one to 735 at UCD.
The trend in nursing is for points to rise, especially at traditional universities. Although general nursing at ATU Letterkenny is down seven to 343 and, at MTU, down from 371 to 352, it’s up from 389 to 411 at DCU, up from 398 to 418 at SETU, up from 424 to 440 at UCC and from 403 to 410 at UCD.
There are also signs of a growing interest in paramedic careers, which may help address Ireland’s chronic ambulance shortages. A new, four-year BSc paramedicine course at UCC debuts at 487 points, while the University of Limerick’s paramedic studies rises significantly from 378 to 409 points.
Science
As far back as the 2000s, science was once a relatively low-points course, but the property crash and the ensuing recession in 2008 marked the start of a new trend: students abandoning arts courses and choosing more science options. Since then, points have risen, reaching a crescendo in 2022 before declining somewhat last year. Has the trend continued?
For the third year in a row, points for science at UCD are down, this time falling from 555 to 544. At Trinity, which has four different science degree offerings, points for most of their courses fell last year, while this year they’re down for three of these degrees – most notably for geography and geoscience, which fell from 494 to 445 points. Only physical sciences stays steady, at 525 points.
Elsewhere, science at Maynooth University stays steady at 350 points. At the University of Galway, it’s down from 440 to 400, while the same university’s biomedical science course stays steady at 577.
Engineering and computer science
At TUS Athlone, civil engineering is down from 476 to 437 points, while the university’s electrical engineering course is up slightly, from 340 to 347 points, and the polymer (plastics) and mechanical engineering course – never the most popular degree but one that is a gateway to a potentially lucrative career – jumps from 329 to 369 points.
MTU’s common entry engineering course falls from 467 to 454 points.
At DCU, common entry engineering students will need at least 521 points, the same as last year, while electronic and computer engineering requires 520 points this year, up 20 from last year.
Points for computer science at Limerick is up 20 points to 422, while at UCD students need 498 points, same as last year.
Business
At Trinity College, business, economic and social studies (BESS) quickly became one of the university’s highest-points courses, and one of the most in-demand in Ireland. The course fell from 576 points to 555 last year, with no change this year.
Commerce at UCD holds at 545 points. At the University of Galway, points are down from 441 to 430, while at UCC students need 509 points to get into commerce, up 10 from 499 last year.
Arts, humanities and law
A few years back, UCD split its hugely popular arts course into a number of different options, all under the broad heading of arts (joint honours) which remained a three-year course, and humanities, which became a four-year course with overseas and work placement options. Since then, the former has required less points than the latter. That said, arts at UCD is up from 378 to 419 this year, while humanities goes from 444 to 467 points.
At Maynooth University, arts is down slightly, from 310 to 307.
With newspapers in perpetual crisis and the media struggling to fund itself, you might expect to see points for journalism falling: it’s down from 330 to 301 at TU Dublin but up by just one point, to 389, at DCU.
Last year, points for law courses fell at UCC, UL, UCD and Maynooth University. This year, it’s up five to 530 at UCC, up one to 507 at UL, down nine at UCD to 556, and down 11 to 451 at Maynooth University. Finally, points for law at Griffith College have dipped from 255 to 249 points and, at TUS Athlone, they’re down one to 327.
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