CAO: Significant hikes for engineering and tech courses

The upward trend in Leaving Certificate points needed to get into hundreds of college courses shows no sign of abating and is particularly evident in many study disciplines.

Of around 930 level-8 courses listed by colleges with the CAO this year, 871 have comparable points scores with 2014, the rest being new courses or changed course codes.

The Irish Examiner’s analysis of Round 1 points shows they are up on last year’s for some 395 (45%) of degrees, down for 266 (31%) and unchanged for around 200. While the average increase is around 15 points, much higher figures emerge when looking at engineering and technology.