18,500 students left without third-level course place

MORE than 18,000 students have not been offered a third level course in the CAO cut-off points released today.

The 47,099 students getting a first-round offer is the lowest ever. There was a mass exodus from computer-based courses and this forced points to spiral in other areas. As a result, students failed to make the raised cut-off point. The percentage of students getting their first choice, or any of their first three preferences, is also down. Computer science and several key electronics programmes took a big hit, with some courses axed and others down by up to 100 points. The downturn in IT has spurred school-leavers to choose business and engineering programmes instead.

The round one cut-off for some computer programmes dipped by as much as 100 points. Computer science is down 100 to 300 at DIT; down 80 to 310 at UCC; down 85 points at Trinity and down 60 to 365 at UCD. Some programmes have been cancelled because of a drop-off in demand. At Cork Institute of Technology, both software development with French and the same programme with German were cancelled.