Over 7,000 college places filled ahead of Leaving Cert results

More than 7,000 college places have been filled through early offers by the CAO.

While the bulk of places in most third-level courses will be taken up after next week’s Leaving Certificate results arrive in schools on Wednesday, some overseas and mature students are offered their chosen courses each year ahead of school-leavers.

Out of more than 46,000 college places filled by the CAO last year, for example, 6,976 had been accepted by this stage of the process. These are generally a small proportion of vacancies on any course, although there is no breakdown of the programmes that have given out some of their places.