73,982 to apply for third-level colleges

The Central Applications Office (CAO) in Galway has received 73,982 applications for third-level courses.

Of that figure, 42,000 are Leaving Cert students, around 10,000 are mature students, 11,000 are people who are applying to do post-Leaving Cert FETAC courses, others are already in education, but are changing course, and the remainder are foreign students.

Leaving Cert results come out on Wednesday, August 12.

The first round of CAO offers will be available on line on Monday, August 17 on www.cao.ie.

It is still unknown exactly how many offers will be made, however, 54,500 were made last year and the CAO office expect the same this year.

If a student does not get what they want, there will be further offers at noon on August 18. A student's first preference could also become available in the second round of offers.

Last year, places became available in round two on 200 courses and around the same is expected again this month.

There are 45 colleges, universities and third-level institutions in Ireland offering 1,200 courses ranging from medicine to law, child care, music, bricklaying and spa management.

Last year, 29,704 people accepted more than one CAO offer and 10,496 people were offered courses but didn't accept.

This year there has been a 49% increase in people applying to study agriculture and horticulture, applications for built environment courses have decreased 35% from 1,282 to 736, Arts is up 5%, construction and engineering are down 9%, nursing is up 12% and education has also seen an increase of 3.3%.

Article courtesy of The Evening Echo newspaper.