Applications rise for engineering and science courses

COLLEGE hopefuls may be starting to turn away from general arts degrees and towards science and engineering courses in the hope of gaining a career in the midst of the recession.

According to the first statistics from this year’s 71,466 applications to the Central Applications Office (CAO), the numbers choosing a level 8 (honours bachelor) general arts degrees and social science degree have fallen almost 2.5% on 2010, with 16,244 people choosing this option as a first preference.

However, perhaps in a response to Government and industry drives to get more young people to pursue science courses, for the second year running, there has been an increase in the numbers opting for level 8 science degrees.