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Going to College 2010

Yesterday was the initial deadline for CAO applications. But students can also use the change-of-mind process to change their options before the July 1st deadline.

New figures released last night reveal there are just under two candidates for every place in our colleges and universities, according to today's Irish Independent.

These are to include the unprecedented number of mature students (more than 15,000) seeking college places this year because of the economic downturn; the surge in the number of Leaving Certificate students, after years of decline, up by an estimated 2,000; new social welfare rules whereby those on jobseeker’s allowances risk the loss of benefit unless they are in education or training; and a directive from the Higher Education Authority that staff numbers must be cut by 6 per cent in the two-year period from December 2008 to December 2010 according to the Irish Times. Full articles available online.

Popular 3rd Level Courses may see CAO points surge

Career experts say 2010 could see a reversal of a decade-long pattern, where points for most courses slumped dramatically so says today's Irish Times.

Career experts say other factors are putting upward pressure on CAO point levels.

These include:

* the record number of mature students (more than 12,000) seeking college places this year because of the economic downturn;
* the surge in the number of Leaving Certificate students after years of decline, up by an estimated 2,000;
* new social welfare rules whereby those on jobseeker’s allowances risk the loss of benefit unless they are in education or training......Continue reading in the Irish Times

CAO Points Pushed up by demand

THOUSANDS of students will be bitterly disappointed today as they discover that points have risen for 550 college courses according to todays Irish Independent...

A record number of applicants has pushed up CAO points virtually across the board this year.

The increase will hit students with around 350 points in particular. They would previously have hoped they had enough points to get into their top choice in today’s first round of offers.

Popular courses such as nursing and teaching – regarded as passports to secure jobs – are all harder to get into this year.

Science has unexpectedly rocketed by up to 85 points, while entry to arts courses is up in most cases.

And the introduction of a controversial aptitude test for medicine this year has thrown up dramatic results, with girls and repeat students losing out badly.

Even some of those with six A1 grades – which is the maximum 600 points in the Leaving Certificate – had failed to get into medicine.

However, others succeeded with just 520 points because, for the first time, they can combine their Leaving with the results of the Australian-devised aptitude test which all medicine applicants had to take.

As a consequence of the change, dentistry has now emerged as the toughest course to get into – up to 575 on random selection in UCC, the equivalent of five A1s and one B3 on higher level papers. In Trinity, entry went from 555 to 570 on random selection.

Despite the current plight of farming, agricultural science has also gone up, as has food science in both UCD and UCC.

The points squeeze comes just days after pupils were left disappointed by the first fall in the number of top A grades in years.

But the sharp rise in points is caused by record numbers of applicants to the CAO.

These include 2,000 more Leaving Cert students than last year and more adults, many of whom have been made redundant. Fewer applications for property- related courses and law have, however, pushed down points in those areas.

And government attempts to boost engineering have yielded disappointing results – dozens of courses will advertise vacancies in engineering on the CAO website within days.

In total, 380 honours degree courses show an increase in points while 252 are lower, 83 remain the same and the remainder are not comparable or are new courses.

Of the ordinary degree and higher certificate courses, 166 were up, 89 were down, 33 remained the same and the remainder were not directly comparable or were new.

This year, overall applications to the CAO were up 7.2pc to just under 74,000. The increase reflects what’s happening in the country due to the recession, said John McGinnity, assistant registrar at NUI Maynooth.

“More adults have applied, and want to get a qualification either because they been made redundant or see the writing on the wall,” he said.

In addition, 2,000 more Leaving Cert students applied than last year. This was partly due to the closure of other non-CAO options, such as apprenticeships.

Arts

Applications for arts were up by 1,000 to just over 10,500, or one in every seven applications. As a result, points for arts were also up. Entry points in UCD for the country's biggest arts faculty, which takes in 1,300 students every year, went from 350 to 360; while in the University of Limerick, arts went from 440 to 445.

Maynooth's arts course now has a higher entry point than NUI Galway, Cork or Dublin. A spokesman for NUIM said the university had broadened its range of subjects to 26 to include law and business and this had proven very attractive to students.

“Many students have chosen a broadly based honours degree during this downturn in the economy, which will allow graduates choose from a range of work or further study options after graduation,” he said.

Other trends from this year’s first round were:

- Nearly half the nursing courses require 400 or more points.

- A poor year for engineering with a slight decrease in applications.

- Two popular business courses – in UCD and NUIG – are down in points, but up in TCD and UCC. The CAO said last night that in round one, 46,918 of all 73,982 applicants received an offer – 63pc of total applicants – as compared with 67.6pc of all applicants in 2008.

Those who did not receive an offer included more than 4,000 who failed ordinary level maths which is needed for most courses.

The figures also show that fewer applicants got their top preferences this year compared with last year.

Of those applying for honours degrees, 26,832 applicants (76.9pc) received either their first, second or third preference as compared with 79pc in 2008.

Already this year 6,922 applicants have received offers in the small earlier Rounds A and Zero, which are mainly for mature applicants, students who deferred a place last year, and some applicants presenting with Further Education and Training Council qualifications for Post Leaving Certificate and other courses.

To date, 5,094 of these (7pc of all applicants) have accepted places.

At this time last year, 3,824 acceptances had accepted offers, representing 5.5pc of total applicants.

- John Walshe and Katherine Donnelly - The article in the Irish Independent

Personally, the fact that the CAO site is not updated constantly with news and information concerning the points situation, only adds to the stress and anxiety of our students, maybe next year they will remedy the situation.

Leaving Cert Results Out Today

Fingers crossed and good luck to all Leaving Cert students who are either eagerly or anxiously awaiting their results today. There is life after the Leaving Cert!

Results are also available online from noon today at www.examinations.ie

For those who shared their thoughts on Leaving Cert.net do let us all know how you got on!

Student Helpline from the National Parents Council will be in operation at 10am on Wednesday 12th of August

Helpline Phone Number: 1800 265 165

Points calculator and further information courtesy of CAO






* Bonus points for Leaving Certificate Higher Level Mathematics will be awarded in 2008 by University of Limerick and for Liberal Arts (MI004) and Early Childhood Care and Education (MI007) at Mary Immaculate College. The Dublin Institute of Technology also awards bonus points for Mathematics and a number of science subjects in the case of the Level 8 course DT021. Applicants should refer to DIT literature for full details.

# Points for Foundation Level Mathematics will be awarded by certain institutions. Applicants should refer to the HEI literature for full details.

NCAD does not award points for Leaving Certificate or other examinations. Consult NCAD literature for details.

Accompanying conditions:

1. The six best results, in recognised subjects, in one Leaving Certificate Examination will be counted for points computation.
2. One sitting only of the Leaving Certificate Examination will be counted for points purposes.
3. In the case of certain subjects, e.g. Home Economics (General), Foundation Level Mathematics or Foundation Level Irish, some HEIs may not award the points shown above. If in any doubt, check with the Admissions Office of the appropriate HEIs.

# LCVP points awarded: Distinction - 70, Merit - 50, Pass - 30

5,000 vacancies the IT sector

Yet the CAO (Central Applications Office) report the number of applicants for engineering and technology degree courses was down by 9.8pc on last year. Why is that?

According to the experts, changing the way our education system works is vital if we are to encourage young people to take up professions such as IT and engineering that will benefit our smart economy, reports Silicon Republic in their article Learning our Lesson.

CAO site up and running as normal

The CAO website crashed yesterday evening and went off line. It is now fixed and up and running as normal.

Students have till July 1st, which is Wednesday to go online for the change of mind though the CAO.

The winners & losers in course choices this year

In today's Irish Times, they have given a run down on the course choices students are making according to the CAO.

The big winner this year is science where demand for higher level degree is up by 20 per cent. The Government and business leaders will be delighted with this trend, which reverses years of steep decline.

The bad news for Leaving Cert students is that CAO points for science courses are set to rise because of the increased demand.

The other big winner this year is agriculture where demand for courses is up by almost 50 per cent, reflecting confidence about the long term security of employment in the food industry and in agriculture.

Health or teaching course applicants must get Garda clearance

Applicants to some CAO courses are surprised to discover that they may be vetted by the Gardai before taking a place on the course.

Garda vetting is a necessary reality for some courses now, although applicants to the majority of CAO's courses are not affected by the procedure. Anyone who is offered a place on a course especially in the areas of medicine, health care, nursing, social work or teaching will require clearance from the Garda Vetting Unit when they register.

Garda clearance is sought only when a person is accepting a place on a course. Students on all of these courses will undertake placements that will bring them into contact in positions of trust with children and vulnerable adults. The Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) are committed to ensuring that only suitable adults are allowed to undertake these programmes.

A list of over 200 course codes can be found on CAO's website, by clicking "Garda Vetting" in the left hand menu. About 80 of these codes relate to nursing. The list of nursing codes is doubled for each branch of nursing or midwifery in any college, because there is one code for standard applicants and one for mature applicants.

Q Is Garda clearance necessary for all individuals being offered places on the relevant courses or does the issue affect only mature applicants?

A Clearance is sought for all those being made an offer, whether they are standard school leavers, or mature or other non-standard individuals.

What normally happens is this: when a HEI is making an offer on a relevant course to an applicant, it will send that applicant a form to complete, where they must give their name, date of birth and all addresses they have lived in since their birth.

They will also be asked to disclose on that form any convictions they may have. Failure to disclose a conviction could do them more harm than the conviction itself might have done, depending on the conviction.

Each HEI submits all the forms to the Garda Vetting Unit for clearance, and the Garda Vetting Unit returns the forms to the college when it has processed them.

CAO's website states that in some cases the HEIs may require applicants to provide more information by way of an affidavit, so an offer of a place on a course would be conditional and might be withdrawn if applicants did not meet the Garda vetting requirements.

Q Supposing an applicant, whether school leaver or other, had come to the attention of the Gardai for something like a minor driving offence, would that be enough for the college to withdraw their offer?

A Any disclosure of a conviction will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and in complete confidentiality by the relevant HEI.

The purpose of the Garda clearance is to satisfy the requirements of the placement provider, that is, where the student would be doing their placement during their course. Some placement providers operate a policy of zero tolerance.

Most of the time, it would depend on the nature of the offence. Anyone can understand that a minor motoring offence might not rank in the same way as an assault or abuse offence of any kind.

Q If an offeree (that is, a person being offered a place on a course) did not meet the placement provider's requirements, and the offer was withdrawn, would that applicant be offered a place on their next highest CAO preference course, if it did not require Garda clearance?

A Withdrawal of an offer is so rare that there is no well-established practice. It might depend on the timing of the withdrawal of the offer, or whether the applicant had applied only to other courses requiring Garda clearance.

Irish Independent

CAO course guide for 2009

CAO course guide for 2009
Click the links below to download the latest CAO course guide in PDF format.
Page one
Includes:
Agriculture
Architecture / Architectural Technology
Art and Design, Product Design, Photography
Arts/Humanities
Page two
Includes:
Arts / Humanities (cont..)
Business / Commerce / Accounting
Page three
Includes:
Business/Commerce/Accounting (cont..)
Computer Science / Systems / Electronics
Construction Studies / Valuation / Surveying
Education / Primary Teaching
Education/Second Level Teaching
Engineering
Page four
Includes:
Engineering (cont..)
Food Studies
Hotel Management, Catering, Travel, Tourism
Law
Page five
Includes:
Medical / Health Sciences / Health Care / Pharmacy
Music, Music Technology
Nursing -General
Nursing - Psychiatric
Nursing - Intellectual Disability
Nursing - General and Children's
Nursing - Midwifery
Other Technology Courses
Sciences / Applied Sciences
Page six
Includes:
Sciences / Applied Sciences (cont..)
Social Science, Social Care, Social Studies, Early Childhood Care & Education, Counselling Studies
Sports Science & Management / Recreation / Leisure Studies

Courtesy of the Irish Independent.

CAO Announce Course Places Today

On the day that the CAO announce the places being offered in the first round, the Irish Independent runs an article bemoaning the lack of students taking up certain courses leading to a glut of jobs available in the Computing, Construction and Engineering areas, it goes on to say;

Thousands of jobs 'lost' as courses snubbed
By Katherine Donnelly and John Walshe
Monday August 18 2008
THOUSANDS of highly paid jobs are going abegging because colleges can't get enough students for courses that are key to the country's economic future.
Major college courses -- offering a route to high-paid technology jobs -- are struggling to fill places, despite a record number of CAO offers today.
There is deepening concern about the poor uptake in science, engineering and technology -- all of which are regarded as a cornerstone for future growth.
Despite the economic downturn, there are 10,000 vacancies in the computing and the IT sector, and 5,000 jobs available in engineering.
A graphic example of the crisis was revealed last night showing that numbers graduating in computer applications from Dublin City University (DCU) dropped from 224 in 2005 to 70 this year.
Michael Ryan, who is Professor of Computing at DCU, said at a recent meeting organised by the college that there were twice as many potential employers as computing graduates.
He said skills shortages in computing were also underlined by the fact that 35pc of new staff in software companies in the Dublin area come from outside Ireland.
He said hard questions have to be asked about maths teaching in schools.
Today, 46,577 CAO applicants received an offer in the post -- up 3pc on last year, reflecting the bumper 68,112 applications for college entry.
Taking into account mature students and those who applied with a Further Education (FE) qualification, it brings to 52,631 the number receiving an offer.
There will be huge disappointment for almost 15,500 applicants who will get no offer at all today.
These will include many of the 5,000 who failed maths, ruling them out of most third-level courses.
Negative
A pass in maths at ordinary level is required for entry to most computing courses and the high 12.3pc fail rate is likely to have had a negative impact on numbers eligible for an offer.
The trend appears to be having a knock-on effect in the world of work as employers say that lucrative job positions are going unfilled.
But even starting salaries for engineers averaging €31,000 do not seem enough to tempt high-flying students.
Other pointers from CAO Round One include:
l Law has lost its some of its lustre, with a drop in applications contributing to a fall in points on many courses.
l Architecture and other construction or property-related courses have dropped points.
l The annual scramble for medicine keeps it top of the points table, and out of reach of most applicants.
l But other healthcare courses, such as physiotherapy and nursing, are down.
l Primary teaching is buoyant with an across-the-board rise in points.
l Points rose on about 250 Level 8, honours degree courses; dropped on 310; and remained the same on 90 others.
l At the Level 7/6 ordinary degree/higher certificate, more than half the courses dropped points, but more than one-third went up.
l Half of those receiving an offer at Level 8 got their first preference and 79pc their first, second or third choice, compared with 81pc and 96pc respectively at Level 7/6
In maths at higher level, a drop in top grades accompanied by a rise in fail rates reduced the pool eligible for a swathe of engineering courses, where a C3 at higher level is usually the minimum grade required.
Because of the failure to fill all their places, some third-level colleges are holding special maths entrance exams offering a second chance to students to gain entry to engineering and some technology programmes.
Poor
The disappointing results in maths, and in some cases the sciences, compounds a relatively poor uptake in these subjects in schools, particularly at higher level.
Engineers Ireland director general John Power said Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe must prioritise investment in key subjects such as maths and the sciences at primary and secondary level while also addressing third level.
He said engineering was the cornerstone of the Celtic Tiger and must be given priority to reinvigorate our economy again.
"It takes engineering and engineers to create the pitch for other professions, such as lawyers and accountants, to play on."
Overall, today's CAO statistics indicate an upward drift in qualification levels, as Level 8 courses continue to account for a bigger share of the offers. Proportionately more courses are being offered at Level 8, including some that have been upgraded from Level 7/6.
- Katherine Donnelly and John Walshe