More than one-third of CAO college offers not yet taken up

MORE than a third of the 45,000 people offered a college place by the Central Applications Office (CAO) have yet to accept, according to figures released last night.

The figures may give hope to about 15,000 applicants not yet offered one of about 40,000 places available through the CAO system this year. Up to Thursday night, 26,500 acceptances were made by those who received good news on Monday and that is expected to be well past the 30,000 mark by this morning.

The second round of offers will be available online from 6am next Friday, at which stage about 1,000 people who did not receive an offer are likely to be offered a place in one of their course choices.