College pressure: 2,500 more seek places

PRESSURE for college places could be up on many popular courses this summer with almost 2,500 more applicants for places this year.

The 61,961 course lists submitted to the Central Applications Office (CAO) up to last month’s deadline represent a 4% increase on this time last year.

National University of Ireland (NUI) Maynooth admissions officer John McGinnity said the figures indicate that perceptions that the points race was in a state of decline may have been inaccurate. “From an analysis of the applications, it appears that points may at least stay the same or be slightly higher, depending on demand for individual courses this year,” he said.

The biggest rise in demand was in art and design courses at level 8 (honours bachelor degree), the first preference of 2,227 applicants — a rise of more than 50% from 2006.

More than 1,000 extra first-preference applications for primary teaching courses have been received by the CAO, bringing the numbers listing it as their top course to 4,981 — a 27% increase.

With first preferences up 20% for teaching courses at one of the biggest colleges of education, Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Limerick, much of the increase is being attributed to more young men applying.

“We are particularly pleased that the number of male students seeking places on our programmes, accounting for more than 21% of all current applicants,” said MIC president Dr Peadar Cremin.

However, a Government campaign to get more young people interested in science appears to have stumbled with a drop in applications for level 8 science programmes. While more than 38,000 applicants listed one of these courses on their list, only 4,765 chose them as their first preference, 5% fewer than last year.

The points for entry to level 8 architecture degrees also look set to rise significantly with the CAO reporting a rise of almost one-third in first preferences, up to 1,126 applicants for the available places.

For levels 7 and 6 (ordinary level bachelor degree and higher certificate), business and administration remains the most popular sector with 12,157 first preferences, or 30%, of 39,727 applicants. There was better news for the Government at this level, with a one-third increase in first preferences for science courses.