Although many of the applicants from the pre-Covid era had little or no chance of competing with this year’s inflated grades, Kerry’s CAO applicants will be close to the top of the class in securing college places writes Billy Ryle, a Kerry career guidance counsellor and educational commentator
The excellent results achieved last week by Kerry’s 1,713 traditional Leaving Cert candidates saw them sweep the board in CAO Round One of college offers, which were released at 2.00pm this Wednesday.
After a few tense days of expectant waiting, there was joy unconfined when a large majority of Kerry’s CAO applicants received a college offer. On a pro rata population basis, Kerry’s CAO applicants will be close to the top of the class in securing college places.
That scenario, of course, depends on students’ ability to finance their education and to secure accommodation against a further increase of 3% to 5% in student expenses. According to price-comparison site Switcher.ie, the average annual cost of going to college is €15,632, about €536 more than last year. Dublin, Cork, Maynooth and Tralee had the biggest rise in average college expenses this year.
Any student who is forced to defer or refuse a higher education course due to lack of finance or accommodation will be absolutely devastated.A final CAO application figure of 83,543 – 2,362 from Kerry – meant keen competition across many courses.
A random selection for entry to some hotly-contested courses left some applicants with the maximum 625 points without their top choice. However, the generous supply of college places that are on offer this year has helped to stabilise the points.
At Level 8, points have fallen for about 50% of courses, points have slightly increase for about 40% while the remainder remain relatively unchanged. The new tertiary degree route through Colleges of Further Education is also helping to ease the pressure on CAO points.
While some CAO courses have seen points increase, the generous offer of college places has benefited the applicants. It’s very evident that the provision of more college places around the country will help to reduce points requirements and to ease the pressure on young people.
While the majority of the 47,326 applicants to the CAO from the 2024 Leaving Cert class, as well as 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 Leaving Cert classes, will have the points to meet the course requirements, it will leave many candidates, who are presenting Leaving Cert results from 2019 or earlier, struggling to secure a college place.
Many of these applicants from the pre-Covid era had little or no chance of competing with this year’s inflated grades.
Minister Norma Foley has committed to reducing this year’s average post-marking adjustment of 7.5% to about 5.5% in 2025 in a gradual return to standard marking. Grades deflation must be the priority in the immediate future so that colleges places can be allocated on actual exam performance rather than an upward post-marking adjustment.
The 2024 statistics prove that the applicants are very efficient in their engagement with the CAO. 56,571 CAO applicants received at least one of the 83,369 courses on offer on Wednesday afternoon. The offers consisted of 51,934 at Level 8 and 31,435 at Level7/6.
Offers are issued independently in respect of the two lists (Level 8 and Level 7/6), so that some applicants received two offers, one from each list. The collective good news is that of the 51,934 applicants who were offered a Level 8 course, 29,173 (56%), received their first preference and a very impressive 43,280 (83%) received one of their top three preferences.
Of the 31,435 applicants who were offered a Level 7/6 course, 28,781 (92%) received their first preference and a whopping 31,087 (99%) received one of their top three preferences.
The overriding conclusion from the points’ trends is that CAO applicants are totally focused on the jobs market. They applied in large numbers for courses with strong employment growth.
UCC’s flagship biological and chemical sciences is offered at 533 points, while its engineering degree has dropped slightly to 509 points.
Physiotherapy at the University of Limerick came in at 590 points while its new occupational therapy degree is offered at 568.
Primary teaching at Mary Immaculate College Limerick is down from 497 points to 488 and MTU Tralee’s excellent general nursing degree dropped from 371 points to 352.
Health science courses remain very popular putting them beyond the points’ totals of most CAO applicants.
Dentistry at UCC, for example, requires a staggering 618 points and pharmacy is offered at 613. All points requirements are available on the CAO website, www.cao.ie.
School leavers continue to rush to college in unprecedented numbers. The steady flow also of mature and non-traditional applications is a very healthy development as everybody deserves a second chance.
A quota of places was reserved by CAO for the 7,365 mature applicants and the 12,055 applicants from the Post Leaving Cert (PLC) sector.
Congratulations to all applicants who received a CAO college offer.
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