Ryan Bartlett
Contributing Writer
In 2010 and 2011 around 71,000 people applied for 3rd level courses in Ireland including many mature students who were encouraged to apply to gain new skills by a national campaign aimed at upskilling older workers.
In 2012 there were 1,700 less students sitting the Leaving Cert. However we saw a higher proportion of the 55,815 students who took the exams sitting higher papers. The rise in CAO applicants implies a larger percentage of these applied for 3rd level also, and so you can already start to imagine the effect of a larger number of students with bigger points totals on the points race.
Today the 76,000 CAO applicants for 2012 found out the result of the first round. This result was affected by several things; the most high profile no doubt was bonus points for higher level maths. However the CAO report shows that few students had a higher level maths score in their top six subjects and so did not benefit from the points in the CAO applications.
The rise in tuition fees in England also had a large impact; students from outside England can still avail of lower rates in Scotland and Wales but we saw a significant increase in the number of students from Britain and Northern Ireland applying for third-level places here.
CAO data shows a 27% rise in the number of UK applications, bringing the total up to around 2,500. The biggest rises in fees in the UK were in England’s top universities, all of which demand A Levels scores equivalent to around 500 CAO points. If we can explain the extra UK applicants on financial grounds then you would expect to see that it was these 500+ points students that decided to apply through the CAO this year. Whilst I have no hard figures to back this up, the dramatic increase in UK students applying to Trinity College is a clear indicator of these students applying.
Meanwhile the Irish students that had traditionally gone to England to access these universities were also deterred from attending with 1,300 less of them applying through the UK equivalent of the CAO.
Students not only opted for higher level maths this year but language students were more likely to sit the higher level paper this year. Courses with a requirement for German at TCD surged this year, with 200 more people taking the higher paper this year.Indeed, the points for language courses increased generally and with so much press in recent years focused on interactions with the rest of Europe it is not surprising that this generation have opted to take more courses involving a language.
The large jump in numbers of students sitting higher level Irish also contributed to a 25+ point jump in both TCD Irish courses.
Of the 22 courses in TCD that had a 25+ point increase, half were science based courses where it is likely that applicants availed of the bonus points. Seven of the courses that had a 25+ point increase were language based, where points have recently been in freefall but have made a recovery. There were two outliers: Drama and Theatre Studies, and Music Education whilst the remaining four Level 8 courses that experienced 25+ increases were all in the health sciences. Meanwhile TCD’s Level 7 and 6 courses saw their points drop dramatically, Dental Hygiene which was once 525 points was down 25 to 500, Dental Tech down more to 420 and Dental Nursing was in free fall dropping 90 points to just 300. Clearly interest in non honours programmes is dropping.
The effect of bonus points in TCD’s case seems not to have been huge, and all TCD courses where higher level maths is a requirement saw a points increase of 25, something which was to be expected. The points of last year’s cohort including the bonus points would have been the same in many cases. Although points for many courses increased within the normal range of 10-15 it would be in an interesting comparison if we could account for the number of last year’s cohort that presented higher level maths.
This morning we saw an increase in points for most level 8 courses that we should have all expected given the number of applicants for them and the increased number of higher level takers across the country. When we add to this the increase in applicants who before may have gone to English universities and the now famous/infamous maths bonus points, a significant increase in points requirements for many courses was to be inevitable.
This year’s Leaving Cert class upped the stakes in the competition for entry into third level education, as more people show an ambition to go into honours degree programmes more and more of them will have to work through level 6 and 7 courses to get there. And debate as to whether bonus points are a helpful or harmful measure will rage on.
All TCD courses showing a rise of 25 CAO points or more for first round offers from 2011 to 2012
Drama and Theatre Studies
Music Education
Early and Modern Irish
Irish
Law and German
Business and German
Business and Spanish
Business and Russian
Business and Polish
Maths
Engineering
Computer Science
MSISS
Theoretical Phyics
Engineering with Management
Human Gentics
Chemistry and Molecular Modelling
Nanoscience
Science
Computing and Business (changed from Business and Computing)
Pharmacy
Human Health and Disease
Childrens and General Nursing
Midwifery
