There are very few things Ireland consumes more enthusiastically than the real-life drama of the first round of CAO offers. Radio stations across the country will be taking callers to discuss the pros and cons of the new points system. Higher education specialists will be wheeled out for their moment in the spotlight, concerned parents hanging on their every word, the gospel truth. Career guidance counsellors bestride our narrow world like colossi. Self-congratulatory Facebook posts abound.
The CAO offers do receive a huge amount of coverage in the media, but amidst all the angst, the apathy and the anguish, they offer us a very valuable insight. We see, when push comes to shove, what young people, and their parents, consider a useful education. Looked at over a period of years, we see how society prioritises certain careers over others, and how those priorities change. While it is an imperfect science, with correlation and causation often impossible to untangle, analysing trends in CAO points can be instructive for those interested in higher education.
While Trinity does not drastically buck any national trends this year, there are still some observations worth noting. Business courses across college rose in points and while the gains were small for Trinity’s new business degree, business combined with skills-based subjects like languages or computer science enjoyed a healthy increase, even as computer science dropped in points as a standalone course. With business and law cementing itself as the highest-points law degree in the country, the appeal of a combined business degree seems to be resurgent.
This could be down to a number of factors. Firstly, the last few years have seen an emphasis on the achievements of a number of entrepreneurs and startups, both in Ireland and abroad. From Deliveroo and the payment processing app Stripe, which have been prominent in the national news, to tech behemoths such as Tesla, Uber and Snapchat which are rarely out of the news, technology is seen as a useful and exciting career path.
Most importantly, the tech world resonates with young people who do not see it just as a growing industry, but rather as an integral part of their lives. This lionization of the entrepreneur would certainly explain the increased levels of interest in management science and information studies and computer science and business even while pure computer science experiences a drop.
Secondly, the popularity of combined business degrees seems to suggest that students are keen to diversify their learning and acquire practical, tangible skills such as fluency in another language or coding. Whether this is a strategic move to stand out to future employers in a crowded field or simply an expression of their interest in a variety of fields is difficult to discern.
Most importantly, the tech world resonates with young people who do not see it just as a growing industry, but rather as an integral part of their lives
One situation which has become clear is that STEM subjects are suffering from an identity crisis. Even after a concerted effort from the government to steer people towards science and engineering, the past few years have seen stagnant growth in demand and now, CAO points have dropped for STEM subjects not just in Trinity but nationally.
The reason might be that while the tech sector seems relevant and accessible to students, STEM subjects haven’t managed to latch on to that sort of “sex appeal” and channel it into increased interest. Science still seems like a daunting career path, with very little practical guidance available to students on how to turn a general science degree into an actual “job”, when in fact there are a huge number of options for science graduates beyond the traditional stereotype of a scientist conducting experiments in a lab.
STEM subjects haven’t managed to latch on to that sort of “sex appeal” and channel it into increased interest
This perhaps explains, to a certain extent, the increased focus on science technology, engineering, arts and mathematics as hybrid or multi-disciplinary degrees. The rise of joint degrees and concurrent decline in STEM CAO points might reflect that reality.
On a side note, in what has been a turbulent year on the world stage, Trinity’s newly developed Middle Eastern and European languages course enjoyed a very strong debut at 506 points, a strong indication of the power of current affairs to shape interest in college courses. World religions and theology and Catholic theological studies both rose considerably in points as well, demonstrating that aspiring Trinity students, in particular, are perhaps torn between the material world of business and the spiritual world beyond.
Finally, while on the subject of current affairs and their influence on CAO choices, it is worth pointing out that a degree in business and Russian underwent a healthy increase of 12 points. Coincidence? Possibly nyet.
