Jess Casey: CAO points fall in more courses than they increase across Munster
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The first round of this year’s CAO saw points fall in more courses than they rose across Munster, analysis from the has found.
Entry points fell in almost 60% of Level 8 courses across the province, although the majority of these decreased by small margins of between one and 10 points.
Meanwhile, entry points for roughly 30% of all Munster courses increased, while the rest remained either unchanged or entered the CAO as new courses this year.
In Munster, intellectual disability nursing at University College Cork (UCC) recorded one of the largest drops in cut-off points this round, dropping from 419 in 2022 to 319 in 2023.
Across the board, nursing points fell this year as more places were made available for students.
One of the highest increases in entry points recorded in Munster could be seen at Munster Technological University (MTU).
Analytical chemistry with quality assurance jumped by 60 CAO points this round, from 336 in 2022 to 396 in 2023.
The honours degree in software development, also available on the MTU Cork campus, also leapt by 43 points this round.
Other popular MTU courses that recorded increases this year included tourism management, computer systems, agri-biosciences, international business with a language, biological sciences, and pharmaceutical biotechnology, all available on the Cork campus.
Meanwhile, its wildlife biology course available on its Kerry campus jumped by 10 points this round, from 310 in 2022 to 320 in 2023.
Points decreased across 70% of UCC courses. The university offers many places in medicine and nursing, so this decrease mirrors a trend that can be seen across the board this year.
Its honours degree course in food marketing and entrepreneurship jumped 18 points this year, from 434 during round 1 offers in 2022 to 452 in 2023.
Engineering also remained in demand, attracting cut-off points of 520 as part of the first round of CAO offers, compared to 510 in 2022.
Biological and chemical sciences, nutritional sciences, speech and language therapy, medical and health sciences, and data science and analytics all recorded a drop in CAO points this round, ranging between 20 and 23.
At the University of Limerick (UL), almost 80% of courses saw their points decrease this year, again mirroring wider trends.
European studies recorded an increase of 41 points this round, jumping from 400 in 2022 to 441 in 2023.
Midwifery also saw a boost in points this year, from 466 in 2022 to 484 in 2023. Entry to this course was determined by random selection, which means not every student who secured these points was offered a place.
Mirroring a wider trend of increasing points for secondary teaching, UL also recorded a jump in points for its science with concurrent teacher education honours degree, up from 455 in 2022 to 465 in 2023.
Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), formerly known as Limerick Institute of Technology before its merger with Athlone Institute of Technology, also recorded significant jumps when it came to cut-off CAO points this round.
Its drug and medicinal product analysis offered at its Limerick campus jumped by 55 points, from 254 in 2022 to 309.
Its honours degrees in computer networks and systems management as well as its civil engineering management course, both offered on the Limerick campus, recorded jumps of 47 and 41 points respectively.
Precision Engineering, also available on its Limerick campus, saw an increase of 39 CAO points, jumping from 261 in 2022 to 300 in 2023.