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.

Last year, more than 3,500 people were given a choice of at least one college place in the second round offers, including those being offered a course higher on their list to one offered in the first round.

The CAO has facilitated the offering of vacant places on 194 courses, more than half of them ordinary bachelor degrees and higher certificates, since Tuesday.

A high percentage of them were on engineering programmes in universities and institutes of technology and all the courses are open to people who have not already applied to the CAO.

Institute of Guidance Counsellors president Frank Mulvihill last night stressed the importance of checking details of courses before accepting a place.

“Whether or not you’ve accepted a place already, you must give serious consideration to any offer you get in round two next week. You should not accept a new offer unless you have investigated what the course entails and are satisfied that it is for you,” he said.

“If students have any doubts, they should contact the college and speak to someone connected with the course. It’s better to find another way of achieving your career goals than to accept a course with which you are not entirely suited,” said Mr Mulvihill.

Meanwhile, students who are considering an appeal of a specific grade in one or more Leaving Certificate subjects will have a chance to view their exam paper at schools next weekend.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) does not have a record of the number of scripts which are viewed by students as the exercise is organised at school level.

The SEC sends 350,000 papers, including all higher level and ordinary level maths scripts, to the schools so those being sought for viewing do not have to be requested individually from the commission’s head office in Athlone, Co Westmeath.