Fewer Leaving Cert students receive offers from CAO

Fewer Leaving Certificate students than last year received college offers last week, despite nearly 800 more school leavers applying for places than in 2015.

As close to 17,300 people who sought entry to third-level this year still await a first offer from the Central Applications Office (CAO) tomorrow, official figures show 38,840 people who were offered a place a week ago sat the Leaving Certificate in June.

They were among 52,288 people to be offered a course by the CAO nine days ago which was 260 more than at the same Round 1 offer stage a year ago. But, at the same time in 2015, 38,890 of those offered a place were among that year’s Leaving Certificate students.