Every year, Ireland’s highly competitive college entry system throws up the same problem. Students who have achieved high CAO points – often, a full 625 – still miss out on the course they sweated blood and tears for. These are high-achieving students who in almost any other European country would waltz into their chosen course.
And so, many of them simply go to a European country to study their chosen discipline instead, with the Netherlands, Hungary and Poland all proving popular destinations with courses delivered in the English language.
For teachers, the focus on changing how the senior cycle is examined and assessed ignores this wider problem. But the CAO – Central Applications Office – is run by the colleges themselves, and they control how it works.
In the coming years, however, a host of new dentistry, veterinary and pharmacy courses will give students more options. Will they bring CAO points down?
RM Block
In response to questions from The Irish Times, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, James Lawless, says his ambition is to open up more education pathways than ever before.
“We want to ensure that there is a route into third level for any student who wishes to pursue it and we are working to support the creation and expansion of new ways to enter higher education,” Lawless says.
Not every student who goes to college comes straight from school and, this year, nearly 15,000 offers were made to applicants who weren’t awaiting their Leaving Cert results or who were assessed on other criteria.
These include mature students and those presenting with a further education and training (FET) qualification for courses that have a quota for FET applicants. The number of part-time undergraduate courses outside the CAO application process has also expanded and, after many years of inequity for part-time students, there is now fee support for those on eligible courses, up from 62 in 2024 to 111 for this academic year.
Another change in recent years has been the expansion of “tertiary programmes”, where admission is based on suitability and interest rather than CAO points (see nto.hea.ie for more details).
“I led the expansion of the number of these courses from 13 in 2023 to 39 this year,” Lawless says.
“This includes new offerings in occupational therapy, nursing, social care and the creative arts, among others. Work is already under way to develop new courses for 2026 and beyond.”
The numbers participating in tertiary degrees, however, is modest, to say the least: a total of 152 students started courses during the first intake in 2023 across 14 different degrees. Last year, the number climbed to 224 tertiary students.
Lawless says he wants to see apprenticeships grow, with the aim of providing more diverse and flexible opportunities to higher education.
This year, a new dentistry course at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences has offered an alternative to the more-established courses at UCC and Trinity. With 20 places, this will increase Ireland’s national dentistry capacity by a third.
After serious concerns were raised by veterinarians that the education system was not meeting industry demands, there was a plan to open up a second veterinary school. Instead, there are two new courses coming on stream from 2026, with one at South East Technological University (SETU) and the other at Atlantic Technological University (ATU).
There’s also a new undergraduate pharmacy course at the University of Galway, with ATU and SETU both launching new courses in 2026.
With points for many in-demand courses rising this year, could this increased choice see points finally begin to ease?
“The expansion of healthcare-related courses is not happening by chance – it is a deliberate and strategic response to the needs of a growing and ageing population, and to the increasing demand for high-point courses,” says Lawless.
“This expansion has been building over several years. Since 2022 more than 1,000 additional places have been created in areas such as medicine, nursing, pharmacy and therapy courses.
“The goal is two-fold: to make sure our health and social care system has the workforce it needs to respond to the changing needs of society, and to reduce the pressure on those seeking to access these high-demand courses, allowing more students than ever before to pursue careers in these vital areas,” Lawless says.
Nonetheless, he recognises that the Leaving Cert and the points-based CAO application system can be competitive.
“Some students thrive under this system, while others can find it stressful at times. It’s worth noting that, each year, around 80 per cent of round one offers are one of the applicant’s top three CAO choices and over 50 per cent of round one offers are the applicant’s first choice.
“This demonstrates that the system delivers positive outcomes for the vast majority of students.
“I’ve asked my department to work closely across Government to ensure we have the skilled graduates needed to support our public services, with a particular focus on health and disability services.”
But what about the reform to the CAO system itself?
Lawless says there is a commitment in the Programme for Government to work with the higher education sector towards reform.
“While the CAO is a private company – owned and managed by higher education institutions – I intend to act on this commitment. As Minister, I cannot directly intervene in how the CAO operates, but I have asked my department to explore options for reform in partnership with the sector. Additionally, what is in my remit are the steps a student takes immediately after the CAO.
“This includes decisions around course choices, the stage at which they specialise and the types of entry pathways into and across third level. These are areas where I am actively working to create a more flexible, inclusive and student-focused higher education system,” he says.
New courses = less pressure?
Will new courses bring down CAO points?
“I would not expect big downward pressure on points,” says John McGinnity, a guidance counsellor at the Institute of Education and formerly admissions officer at Maynooth University.
“The numbers for pharmacy, dentistry and nursing are all up, and those patterns will continue, especially as the number of additional places across new courses are relatively small.”
The expansion of health science options may also see them more appealing to more students, McGinnity says.
“In 2024, there may have been people in Galway who would have loved to do pharmacy but would have had to go to Cork or Dublin, and couldn’t afford accommodation. Now, with pharmacy in Galway, more people in the west will apply.
“Similarly, there is a large farming contingent in the northwest and southeast, but because UCD was the only place offering veterinary courses, the cost of accommodation was prohibitive.
“So, while they will have a dampening effect on CAO points, they may also lead to higher demand. Overall, though, these new courses should mitigate against a bigger points rise than if they were not there at all. So, from an applicant perspective, this is broadly positive.
“Even if people don’t get the points in Ireland, however, there are many prospective vets who will instead go to Poland or Hungary where they can still study through English. And many choose to choose abroad either way.”
Maria Faherty, guidance counsellor at Function1 Guidance, echoes McGinnity.
“In an ideal world, an increased offering of high-demand courses should reduce CAO points,” she says.
“However, we may see an increase of students living in Ireland applying for these courses – hence increased demand will result in little, if any, points reduction. Also, with more degree supply, students that may have previously written themselves off may have more confidence in applying for high-points courses. So I can imagine the points reduction will be gradual, rather than dramatic.”
