Points go up due to demand for college

Points for third-level courses are to be higher than last year as more people have applied for places in college due to the economic downturn.

The public sector hiring embargo and the lack of opportunities for those looking to do a trade have been cited as reasons for the surge in numbers applying to go to college.

Previously, colleges have reacted to such increases by making more places available but this is unlikely to be the case this year due to budgetary constraints.

Students who sat this year’s Leaving Certificate will get their results on Wednesday, with the first round of college offers from the Central Applications Office (CAO) out on Monday.

Compared to last year, there are 3,000 more people looking to go to college, up from 74,628 to 77,628.

Already, 7,280 people have accepted a place in college through early offers available to overseas students, mature students and those who deferred for a year last time. The figure last year was 5,568.

Among the areas which have seen a major rise in applicants are nursing as well as other healthcare courses such as occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

Arts courses are also back in vogue, with points expected to rise slightly, There has also been more interest in science and engineering courses while business courses have attracted a similar amount of interest. There has been a slight rise in the number of people who want to become teachers.

The one area which has seen a major drop in interest from students is, as expected, the construction sector, with courses related to the industry, such as architecture, falling out of favour with young people.

The points increase in most CAO courses will only add to the stress already being felt by Leaving Cert students.

Research carried out by the Economic Social and Research Institute (ESRI) has shown that many students have lost sleep due to anxiety over the Leaving Cert.

The stress is having a worse effect on girls, with more than 50% of them stressed in their final year in school and up to 40% losing sleep. This compares with a third of boys feeling the strain and 20% losing sleep.

Article courtesy of the Evening Echo newspaper.