With a rise in points for 700 college course in third-level institutes throughout the country there is, in particular, a noticeable rise in the number of points required for science courses.
As the offer of first round points were published earlier this morning by the CAO it was found that this year points for the BSc course in science in University College Dubin (UCD) jumped 50 points from 385 to 435. Points for computer science in UCD only rose by five points to 375.
Meanwhile computer science in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) rose by five points to 355, engineering rose from 405 to 425 points and science jumped 20 points to 460.
With a record number of 67,640 school leavers applying to the CAO this year the points have risen, due in part to the return to education of those recently made unemployed in the economic downturn as well as the Government message about the ‘knowledge economy’, placing an increasing emphasis on maths, science, computer science and engineering courses.
In contrast points for all five main architecture courses in Irish universities have experienced a large drop with UL experiencing a dramatic drop of 70 points for its course.
