CAO points race set to heat up as students take grades gamble
:: Cancellation of Leaving Cert sends medicine demand up 6pc
POINTS for medicine and other elite courses look set to rise in the wake of the cancellation of the Leaving Cert.
The loss of the traditional State exam may have driven school-leavers to aim higher in their college choices.
Medicine and other health-related professions, law and architecture are among the disciplines showing a jump in interest in the final CAO application figures.
The high-profile work of doctors and other medical staff on the front line of fighting the coronavirus pandemic may also have fuelled the popularity of the health sciences this year.
UCD deputy president and registrar Professor Mark Rogers said: “Undoubtedly, the focus on these professions in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis is a significant contributory factor.”
Students’ high aspirations come in a year when the June exams were replaced by a calculated grades process, which relied on teachers marking their own students.
While the change caused some anxiety, observers believe it spread an optimism among students and a belief that their school would be kind to them in the unprecedented circumstances.
Without the written tests, Leaving Cert candidates were also saved the scourge of a bad exam day which, in other years, might cause them to rein in their expectations before the final CAO deadline of July 1.
The minimum points requirement for entry to a CAO course depends on the number of places and the demand in any given year, which is why a significant rise in applications can signal a points hike.
There is speculation that extra college places will be opened to avoid as much disappointment as possible for the class of 2020, after all the disruption that they have already suffered.
The Higher Education Authority (HEA) pre-empted an increase in interest in some disciplines and the issue was
discussed in the context of replacing the June exams with calculated grades.
Opening additional places would ease pressure, while there is also some speculation that the Covid-19-enforced changes to the college experience in the autumn will lead to a lower take-up rate among those who do get offers.
If more students defer places, it would create opportunities for others.
Final CAO figures show a total of 77,831 applications, up from 77,415 this time last year, an overall 0.5pc increase.
The growing appetite for honours-degree (Level 8) courses saw an above-average 1.1pc rise for this group, in contrast to a 2pc dip for Level 7/6 courses (ordinary degree/ higher certificate).
The data are based on the course choices of CAO applicants following the Change of Mind period that ended on
July 1, with 44,347 applicants varying their preference lists.
For honours-degree courses, that figure is up more than 8pc on last year so, despite all the uncertainty wrought by the pandemic, a higher number of applicants than usual took the trouble to refine their course choices.
Demand for medicine has jumped 6pc on 2019, and many health-related courses have seen double-digit percentage increases.
While applications for nursing are flat, physiotherapy is up 25pc, veterinary medicine is up 16pc, dentistry is up 17pc and pharmacy is up 6pc.
There is a big surge in applications for law, which is up 16pc on July 2019 with 18,884 first preferences, from 16,187 last year.
Architecture/construction is up 7pc, biological and related sciences courses are up 5pc, and courses grouped under the heading environment are up 8pc.
Demand for primary teaching is static, reflecting students’ awareness that pupil numbers have peaked in that sector, while courses leading to jobs in second-level schools are up 7pc.
With CAO applicants showing a significant attachment to traditional professions, arts is one of the casualties, with a 7pc fall-off in interest.
Overall applications for business are unchanged, but some colleges have seen a huge surge, including Maynooth University where demand is up 21pc.
Maynooth has recorded its highest ever number of CAO applications and other noteworthy upward application trends there include psychology (20pc), law (9pc) and biological and biomedical sciences (5pc).
Maynooth University president Professor Philip Nolan said it planned to admit in excess of 3,000 students in the coming year.
UCD said its first preferences broke through the 9,000 mark, with an increase of almost 600 (7.9pc) from this time last year.
In UCD, student interest in the healthcare professions is up across each of the disciplines – medicine, nursing, radiography and physiotherapy – and it has also seen a surge in first preferences in commerce, law, psychology, veterinary medicine and computer science.
UCD’s Professor Mark Rogers said 2020 would be recorded as “a remarkable year as school leavers grappled with the disruption to their studies, the cancellation of the Leaving Certificate here in Ireland, and of final State examinations in many countries, the adjustment of university application processes to take account of calculated grades, and the uncertainty around how college life will be structured under prevailing public health restrictions dealing with Covid-19.”
Meanwhile, the University of Limerick will hold on-campus lectures for just one week a month for most students, it confirmed yesterday.
First-year undergraduates will attend on-campus lectures every three weeks, while all other students, including postgraduates, will attend lectures in person every four weeks.
In an email to students, vice-president Professor Kerstin Mey, on behalf of the Academic Planning Group at UL, said that on-campus weeks were altered to minimise number of people on campus at any time to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
“This approach, including on-campus and online learning, minimises the risk of a Covid-19 outbreak by using social bubbles (keeping year groups together) and a circuit breaker (periods off campus) based on scientific insight into the spread of the virus.”
There is a big surge for law, up 16pc on July last year