Shift towards teaching and health at third level

Arts degrees remain the most popular choice for college applicants, but official statistics suggest teaching and health professions have become increasingly attractive.

The figures are based on choices up to March 1 of the 62,345 people who have so far registered interest with the Central Applications Office in level 8 (honours bachelor degree) courses. They are among 73,091 total applicants to date, a figure that is already almost 2,000 more than this time last year, but thousands more are likely to make late applications up to May 1.

A comparison with final application statistics last year shows a slight shift back towards teaching courses, which account for 7.5% of first preferences among those picking level 8 degrees on their application, up from 7% last year.

While the figures are subject to variation between now and July 1, the last date for students to change their minds, they give a fair indication of the most sought-after courses.

Almost one in four have opted for arts or social science degrees, which include the main arts degrees at the universities.

Medicine is the number one course choice of 3,277 CAO applicants — 5.3% of the total, up from 4.6% in July 2013 — although this figure traditionally drops significantly after scores from the HPAT aptitude test.

Nursing remains the first preference of nearly 9% of students, while physiotherapy and veterinary medicine show slight increases in popularity.

A general category of ‘other healthcare’ degrees sees a big jump in first preferences, but the CAO cautions that this may be largely due to a lot of courses being recategorised since last year.

After major rises in the numbers applying for science degrees in recent years, this appears to have levelled off, with less than 14% of level 8 applicants listing one from this category as their top choice.

While slightly lower than the July 2013 proportion, it remains significantly higher than the 9% who did so in 2008.

However, University College Dublin reports a second successive 23% year-on-year rise in first preferences to its common-entry science degree, which allows students to specialise after the first year of study. UCD has reduced the number of courses open to Leaving Certificate students from 84 to 45 since 2009. However, as reported last month by the Irish Examiner, course choices at other universities have increased or are largely unchanged since suggestions after a 2011 conference on transition from second to third level that fewer courses could reduce the number of high-points degrees that put pressure on school-leavers to achieve top exam grades.

Law and architecture, whose declining attraction of recent years was linked to the construction slump, show slight increases in the proportion of CAO applicants making them their first choice.

A slight fall in mature students — aged 23 or over — to just over 11,000, is also reported.

While overall applicant numbers are up almost 3% since March 2013, the 37,335 applying for level 6 and 7 courses is 72 fewer than a year ago.

There is a 22% rise in EU applicants to 1,145 and a smaller increase from non-EU students, up to 436. The 1,091-strong intake from the North is 10% less than last year.