ANALYSIS:CAO POINTS for most courses are expected to be broadly similar to last year. However, points are expected to rise for areas like nursing, science and agriculture which have seen a sharp increase in demand.
Overall, there were 3,766 extra applicants in the CAO system this year but over 1,500 of these were mature students. The additional CAO applicants are not expected to place any upward pressure on Level 8 higher degree courses as most will be applying for certificate and ordinary level courses where points levels are low.
Among the colleges this year, Trinity is the big winner with a 10 per cent increase in first preference applications for higher degree courses.
NUI Galway (up 8 per cent) and UCD (up 6 per cent ) also showed impressive gains. NUI Maynooth (up 1.5 per cent) registered an increase in student demand for the third year in a row. The patterns for the other colleges were DCU (plus 0.7 per cent) ; DIT (minus 2 per cent); National College of Ireland (up 20 per cent); University of Limerick (up 0.04 per cent) and RCSI (up 7 per cent).
Many of the institutes registered very strong increases in demand including those in Blanchardstown, Carlow, Waterford and Cork. But both Galway/Mayo IT and Sligo IT saw a steep decline in applications.
Overall the number of students listing a UCD course as their first preference increased to 7,504. This means that UCD remains the most popular university for level 8 higher degrees.
In other trends, there was a fall off in student demand for courses where job prospects are thought to be poor. These include pharmacy (down over 30 per cent) and physiotherapy (down 3 per cent).
Pharmacy has been affected by the HSE move to limit the number of posts, while the lack of jobs among physiotherapy graduates has received extensive publicity. Main trends in other areas include;
Nursing: Student demand is up by 12 per cent, even though the HSE has cut over 300 places from the 1,800 available last year.
With more students chasing fewer places, CAO points for nursing can be expected to increase this year.
Arts courses: Overall demand remains strong with applications up by 5 per cent.
Many students are opting for a general arts course in the hope the economy will pick up by the time they have completed their degree.
Overall: In general, students are opting for courses which will give them specific skills while providing a measure of security.
There is strong demand in areas like agriculture, science, engineering/technology, art and design, medicine, veterinary medicine and nursing, all areas where there are decent job prospects.
Those without specific interest in any of these disciplines are hedging their bets and sticking with general degrees in arts and business. Nationally there was increased interest in science. At UCD first preferences in science increased by 21.5 per cent building on a 30 per cent increase last year. Similarly, electronic engineering has increased by 8 per cent in first preferences.
NUI Maynooth has seen strong growth in the number of students applying to study science, computing and engineering.
Commenting on the figures, assistant registrar John McGinnity said: “We are pleased with the reaction to our science, computing and engineering offerings – a positive sign, given recent industry calls for more graduates in these areas.”
