There has been a significant decrease in demand for arts courses.
Ronan Costello
Editor
Today’s first round of CAO offers reveals changing trends in course preferences. Students have opted for more science and technology related courses, which are now seen to hold better job prospects. Points requirements for Arts and Business courses have fallen as a result of decreased demand.
While the requirement for successful entry to Science in Trinity is up a modest 15 points to 475, in UCD it has risen to 455, up 155 points on what was required only five years ago. This trend is repeated around the country, with entry to Science up 20 in NUI Galway, 25 in DCU and 10 in NUI Maynooth.
The same upward pattern is evident for courses in computer science, up 35 in UCD to 410, up 30 in Trinity to 385 and up 15 in UCC.
On the other hand, arts and business courses have suffered. UCD arts, the largest undergraduate course in the Republic, has seen a 10 point drop to 355. Similarly in NUI Galway, the arts course requirement has fallen to 340.
Other main trends of first-round offers include:
- Teaching – The upward trend in this discipline has halted, with no change to points requirements at St Patrick’s Drumcondra. It is slightly down at Marino and at Mary Immaculate College. The points required for courses in early childhood education are also substantially down.
- Agriculture – With a surge of 27 per cent in demand for courses, the points requirements have increased substantially.
- Business – Business courses in general have seen a fall in demand during the recession. The points needed for broad-based business courses at UCD, UCC and NUI Galway are all down. Points for business, economics and social studies at TCD are unchanged.
- Medicine – the points requirement for undergraduate medicine is up again, but graduate entry requirements for medicine are down. Trinity is up 10 to 741, Royal College of Surgeons is also up 10 to 733, UCD is up 13 to 738 and NUI Galway and UCC are up nine to 729 and 734.
CAO Trends
Points increased in:
Science
Computer science
Engineering
Multimedia
Medicine and related
Nursing
Agriculture
Sports and exercise
Psychology
Business with languages
Points down or remain unchanged in:
Broad-based Arts courses
Broad-based business courses
Journalism
Law
Teaching
