Irish College Course Points Rise in Over Half of Programs

This year's Irish college admissions saw a significant shift, with more than half of Level 8 courses requiring higher points following the first round of offers from the Central Applications Office (CAO). Specifically, 50.6% of programs experienced an average increase of 23 points, though the range of these increases varied widely, from a single point to as many as 211.

In contrast, nearly 41% of courses saw a decrease in their points requirements, averaging 21 points lower, while a small fraction, 8.5%, maintained the same points threshold as the previous year. In total, students received 90,866 round one CAO offers nationwide, comprising 56,618 for Level 8 courses and 34,248 for Level 7/6 programs.

As predicted, demand has softened for certain Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and agriculture-related programs. For instance, primary teaching at Dublin City University (DCU) dropped from 485 points last year to 473 this year. Similarly, computer science at University College Dublin (UCD) saw a decrease from 542 to 510 points, and agricultural science at UCD fell from 432 to 417 points.

Conversely, fields such as veterinary medicine, physiotherapy, and medicine attracted more applicants, resulting in either increased or stable points requirements. Medicine at Trinity College Dublin saw a slight rise from 739 to 741 points, while veterinary medicine at UCD went from 590 to 589. Physiotherapy at the University of Limerick decreased from 589 to 579 points.

For courses with high demand and limited spaces, a random selection process is employed when multiple applicants meet the required points. This year, 35 courses are using this method, including medicine programs at several universities. Notably, only two of these 35 courses require the maximum 625 points: dental science at Trinity College Dublin and dentistry at University College Cork. Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless commented positively on this trend, noting it was the first year in several that a student achieving maximum points would not be disadvantaged by random selection for their first-choice course.

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This year was the first in several that a student who obtained maximum points would not lose out to random selection.