Higher education sees biggest ever rise in numbers

The start of the 2009/10 academic year has seen an 8.3% rise in numbers attending third-level institutions on last year's figures.

It is the largest ever jump and growing numbers are also returning to higher education through routes other than the CAO.

There has been a surge in students attending science and computing courses.

The figures are up 25% on last year with science at its highest level in ten years.

The increase brings the total number of full-time undergraduate students in Ireland to more than 110,000.