40,000 college places accepted

Almost 40,000 people have accepted college places over the last week, ahead of the next round of offers on Thursday.

When combined with nearly 7,500 places taken up in preliminary offer rounds, the 39,832 people accepting places brings to 46,470 the number of third-level college places now filled, some having taken offers in more than one offer round.

That is almost 1,200 more than at this stage last year but it is unclear yet whether there will also be a slight increase on the 47,000 places that were eventually filled in 2014 through the Central Applications Office (CAO).

A year ago, 1,137 people received an offer in CAO Round 2 who had not already been offered a place on a course for which they had applied. The second round offers will be issued on Thursday morning, with applicants able to check their status from 6am online.

But many popular courses are likely to have already been filled and may not see offers being made and an associated drop in points needed for entry. Last year, for example, the main university arts degrees and the two primary teaching degrees which enrol most students did not offer any places in Round 2.

The 52,000 people offered a place eight days ago on almost 1,400 courses being filled through the CAO this year included 39,237 of the 46,801 who had applied on the basis of 2015 Leaving Certificate results. Half of the 40,599 people offered a level 8 degree are almost certain to have accepted, as it was their first choice on their CAO application.

But CAO general manager Joe O’Grady said those who accepted a course that was their second preference or lower in Round 1 may still receive an offer of a higher-preference course in a subsequent round.

“If an applicant is deemed eligible for a course in a later offer round, they may be made an offer which they can either accept or ignore,” he said.

As the student contribution fee for third-level undergraduates, not supported by grants, climbs another €250 this autumn to €3,000, a recent Irish League of Credit Unions survey found an average €450 a month being spent by parents who support children at college.

According to Bank of Ireland yesterday, its survey of students found nearly two-thirds survive on less than €100 a week, nearly half have part-time jobs and one-in-three get financial support from home.

The Irish Examiner revealed last week that the proportion of students who get a maintenance grant from Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) who live at least 45km from home continues to rise. It grew from 47% of those who got a Susi grant in 2012 to 52% of the 57,819 students who did so last year.

But rising rents and growing pressure on student accommodation supply in Dublin, Cork and Galway, means more students may decide to commute to lectures.

Among the offers to be made on Thursday will be places on some of more than 200 courses that have been open for fresh applications through the CAO website over the past week. They have vacant places, either as late additions to colleges’ prospectus, or because they did not have enough applications from suitable candidates to fill the course.

The cut-off points for all CAO courses will be published in Thursday’s Irish Examiner.