Arts, business and science top college choices

Arts, business and science courses still account for the top choice of over half of college applicants but there are drops in student interest in art, medicine and nursing degrees.

The trends emerge from final figures from the Central Applications Office (CAO) on the choices of just under 78,000 people who hope to get onto one of over 1,400 courses on offer this year. The total number seeking places is up 2% on the 76,121 who applied in 2013, of whom 46,129 got a place through the CAO system.

While applications closed earlier in the summer, applicants had until July 1 to finalise the order of their choices and just under one-in-four of the 68,737 who applied for an honours bachelors (level 8) degree listed an arts or social science course as their first preference.