14,087 miss out on college places

MORE than 14,000 students have missed out on college places after a rise in the points required for many popular courses.

The applicants will have to wait another two weeks before they discover if they will be offered the courses they hoped for.

The Central Applications Office (CAO) will today make at least one offer of a college place to 47,660 of the 65,791 people who applied for degree, diploma and certificate courses this year.

But with just over 4,000 places already offered to other candidates in Round 0, 14,087 school-leavers, overseas hopefuls and mature students have an anxious wait until the second round of offers on Tuesday, September 2.

Effectively, more than one-in-five applicants are without any offer today, compared to one-sixth at this stage of the selection process in 2002.

The improved performance of this year’s Leaving Certificate students meant the points for many of the most sought-after courses rose slightly.

Anyone hoping to study raditionally elite courses such as medicine, dentistry and pharmacy will need over 550 points this year.

Some 1,944 students have listed medicine as their first preference, 243 have picked dentistry and 497 have chosen pharmacy.

The Higher Education Authority is preparing a report to examine the feasibility of a common science degree as the principal means of entry to medical, veterinary and related courses, which might eliminate the tough competition for places.

But part of the problem is that almost half the places in Irish medical schools are kept for overseas students, according to a group considering a legal challenge of the policy.

This week’s Irish Medical Times reports that the parents, doctors and aspiring medical students involved in the campaign claim a quota system means most medicine graduates will be non-Irish within four years.

They say many Leaving Certificate holders are enrolling in eastern European medical schools because they are denied college places here.

There were varying drops in the grades needed for courses in other sectors, particularly in information and communications technology (ICT) for the second year running.

Despite this, the institutes of technology believe points are stabilising after a worrying decline from the high requirements of two and three years ago. For advice on CAO offers and acceptances, contact the National Parents Council (Post Primary) free helpline at 1800 265 165 or your local Youth Information Centre.