Colleges almost at capacity as more course offers in

Fewer than 2,500 people have been offered third-level places this morning as colleges are almost at capacity.

Some 2,573 offers have been available since 6am on the Central Applications Office (CAO) website but, with more than 100 people having two courses to choose from, the total number of recipients is 2,446, down from 2,901 at the same stage a year ago.

Most people getting a course offer today were among the 60,304 to already receive an offer from the CAO up to last week. Only 971 applicants who did not have a place offered to them so far this year got one this morning, nearly 200 fewer than this time last year.