CAO fills additional 1,300 college places

MORE than 1,300 additional college places have been filled by the Central Applications Office in the latest phase of offers for this year’s highly competitive race for third level entry.

After last week’s second round offers were made, almost 19,900 applicants were still without a place and little more than 1,000 of these can expect to be offered entry to a college course between now and the closure of the CAO process next month, based on patterns in previous years.

The CAO said 2,233 offers were accepted since last week’s second round, but many of these may have been by applicants who took up an offer from one of the two level 8 or level 7/6 course lists and later accepted one from the other list.

Just over 57,700 of this year’s record 77,628 college applicants had received an offer up to last week, although applications remain open for a range of courses with vacant places which are listed on the CAO website.

The latest CAO update comes as university heads warned of the effect of education cuts after Ireland’s two leading universities, Trinity College and UCD, slipped down the world rankings.

A fall in funding for third level institutes, a drop in staff numbers and increased competition from around the world have been blamed for the results.

However, University College Cork made it on to the top 200 list for the first time, coming in at 184 compared with 207 last year.

Cork is now among the top 2% of universities worldwide.

According to the QS World University Rankings, Trinity slipped out of the top 50, down to 52 from 43 last year, while UCD fell out of the top 100, down to 114 from 89.

UCC president Michael Murphy said the ranking reflects the hard work of the entire UCC community. “It is a credit to the university as a whole, and to our researchers in particular, that we have made such a significant improvement in the world rankings.”