Students travelling to Britain down 16%

FEWER Irish students crossed the Border or the Irish Sea to take college courses last year because of the introduction of college fees in Britain, a report has found.

Only 2,675 students from the Republic accepted places last year through the Universities and Colleges Applications System (UCAS) — Britain’s equivalent of the Central Applications Office (CAO) system here. This was a drop of 16% from the 3,177 acceptances in 2005 and compares to 3,384 a year earlier, meaning numbers taking places in Britain and the North fell by more than one-fifth in just two years.

According to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) report which reveals the figures, this may be due to the introduction of tuition fees of up to €4,500 a year for new entrants to British colleges from last September.

“The increased fees presented a dramatic cost to Irish students considering a university course in the UK and may have caused students to reconsider this option,” the report said.

It used figures from the CAO to analyse the trends and choices of college applicants last year across the various areas and disciplines of study between 2002 and 2006.

More than one quarter, or 704, of last year’s travelling students accepted places on healthcare courses, which may largely be due to the difficulty gaining entry to Irish colleges. In most of these disciplines, students still need at least 550 out of 600 points in the Leaving Certificate.

The report shows that the numbers accepting places on medicine and dentistry trebled to 95 between 2002 and 2006, even though overall acceptances to courses in Britain fell in the same period.

“During this time, the number of places offered on medicine courses in the Republic would also have increased, this indicates continuing high demand for these places,” it said.

The Government has increased the places available to school leavers in Irish medical schools to 420 this autumn, 110 more than two years ago. But with demand remaining high, points requirements are unlikely to drop much, if at all, below the 550 mark this year.

Students are due to get their Leaving Certificate results on August 15 and the CAO will make first-round offers the following week.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin is due to announce a new selection method soon for school leavers under which, from 2009, those who sit an aptitude test in spring and reach a minimum Leaving Certificate points score — likely to be in the region of 500 points — would be considered for medicine places.

The HEA report describes as worrying the fact that less than 1% of students with at least 450 points who accepted places on honours degrees last year chose computing courses, down from 6% in 2000. However, the numbers with more than 500 points who took places in science, computing, engineering and construction courses rose from 932 in 1998 to 1,029 last year.

The report showed that one-in-eight Irish students taking courses in Britain are studying engineering. One- in-10 students chose creative arts and design college programmes. Other popular disciplines were biological sciences, architecture and business, in which almost 900 places were filled by Irish people last year.

Talking points

* Three-in-five students accepting places with 450+ points were female.

* Males are more likely (11% v 8%) to repeat the Leaving Certificate to get the desired points.

* More than four-in-five teacher training places taken by students with 450+ points were filled by females.

* 65% of students filling places with 550 points or more last year were female, up from 61% in 1998.