More than 14,000 students denied college places

MORE than 14,000 students have been left without a college place after second round offers were released by the CAO.

Just 673 places on degree, diploma and certificate courses have been offered, with only a handful of remaining places to be filled after yesterday’s round two offers are processed, the CAO confirmed.

There will be no official third round of offers.

Those who have not received an offer face tough choices in the coming days, Institute of Guidance Counsellors president, Brian Mooney, said.

“Only a handful of offers will be made from now on. Those who have missed out on their course by five points or so have some hope. But for the others, it’s decision time,” he said.

Among the 14,000 students who have not been offered a place are 4,700 who failed ordinary level mathematics. They have little or no hope of getting a place anywhere. Many face the prospect of repeating, while others might choose a Post Leaving Certificate programme which does not require maths.

“Those who do decide to go back and repeat should ask themselves what will be different about next year? They will have to make sure that they do things differently and that they won’t just be wasting another year out of their life,” Mr Mooney said.

The cut-off points for several programmes dipped significantly, as did the requirements for nursing. A number of computer courses took a further hit.

Computer applications at CIT dipped a further 65 points to 240. Computer science at UCD dipped 15 to 365. Computer science at DIT fell a further 95 points to 210.

The cut-off points for several UCC courses dipped as round two offers were made. Social science dipped 10, European studies dipped 30 to 345 and the various languages and cultural studies programmes dipped between 5 and 40 points.

At DIT, engineering dipped 35 and at UCD further offers were made in radiotherapy, which dipped 10. Its computer science course dipped a further 15. At UCG, industrial engineering dipped 60 points to 320.

On the diploma and certificate side, applied chemistry at CIT is down 55 and biomedical engineering is down 75. At DIT, applied science is down 60 and med lab science fell 145 points. Electronics and computer engineering in Limerick IT dipped 30.

Yesterday, 3,231 offers were made to 3,162 applicants. Of these, 673 are getting an offer for the first time. Also, 2,495 nursing offers are being made.

Take-up rates from round one are on a par with last year. Just over 65% of degree places in round one were accepted. Just 34% of diploma and certificate places were accepted.

On the nursing side, the cut-off points dipped, as was expected with so few offers from round one being taken up. General nursing dipped by up to 80 points. Psychiatric nursing dipped by up to 75 points and Mental Handicap nursing is reduced by up to 50 points.