Business and engineering fail to fill courses
But the vacancies could be good news for almost 20,000 people who have not yet been offered any places by the Central Applications Office (CAO) up to this week.
Leaving Certificate points needed for two-thirds of business and administration courses were down on last year when Round 1 offers were made by the CAO on Monday, which was partly prompted by a fall in applicants seeking entry.
The engineering sector was hit worse by falling demand, and this was reflected in the points being down for 40% of all engineering and technology courses, and by 25 points or more on 25 courses.
The CAO opened 166 courses for new applications yesterday, with its vacant places service available to help colleges fill courses which did not get enough applications or for which not enough applicants met the minimum academic entry requirements. For example, a student might have got more Leaving Certificate points than needed, but may not have the required grade in English or maths.
Of 72 level 8 (honours bachelor degree) courses with vacant places at mid-afternoon yesterday, 28 fell under the business and administration category, while 22 were engineering or technology degrees.
More than half of the 96 level 7 and 6 (ordinary bachelor degree and higher certificate) courses with vacant places were administration or business programmes and 19 were in the engineering and technology fields.
Across all levels, half the remaining 48 courses with vacant places were in the arts and social science category and the rest were in science (nine courses), law (eight), art and design (five), built environment (two), agriculture and architecture (one course each).
There are places available in all 17 courses at Dublin Business School and all but two of 13 level 8 courses available this year at Griffith College in Dublin and Cork, and all eight honours degrees at Tipperary Institute. The vacant places also include eight engineering degrees at DCU.
About half of almost 47,000 people offered a course by the CAO on Monday have accepted their place online, but the remainder have until next Tuesday evening to do so. A second round of offers will be issued on September 2.
Meanwhile, University College Dublin Students Union has apologised after mistakenly reporting that Green Party deputy leader Mary White was in favour of reintroducing college fees in a newspaper ad setting out the responses of all TDs to questions on the issue. It said that it had been connected to Fianna Fáil Senator Mary White by the Leinster House switchboard and reported her response in error under the Carlow-Kilkenny TD’s name.
The Green Party TD said yesterday that she supports her party stance opposing the introduction of third level fees and had written to other colleges last week reiterating her opposition.
