Tell me about UCC
– Founded in 1845, University College Cork has a vibrant, modern campus and is ranked in the top two per cent of universities worldwide (QS World Rankings 2012).
– Ireland's first five-star university (QS Stars 2011). UCC has been selected as the Sunday Times Ireland's University of the Year three times over the past decade, the only Irish university to achieve this accolade.
– There are 20,000 full-time students attending UCC, with 14,000 of these following undergraduate programmes. UCC's diverse student body includes 3,000 international students representing 100 countries worldwide. One of the largest employers in the region, a third of UCC staff is from overseas.
– Strong research performance.

Why change to UCC?
– The percentage of graduates in employment or further study, at 91 per cent in 2011, is above average for the sector. Nine high-potential start-up companies providing 60 jobs were also established from UCC's investment in research during that time.
– The college is building a state-of-the-art student hub to support student learning and employability skills development.
– You can attend one of Ireland's largest universities that still maintains a community feel, in a student-orientated environment only a stone's throw from the city centre.

Weird fact about UCC
– Graham Norton, Ronan O' Gara, Peter Stringer, Cillian Murphy and Des Bishop are all graduates.
– World's first Green Flag campus. It also became the first university in the world to achieve certification to the ISO 50001 standard for energy management.

Why not change to UCC?
If you don't have Cork passport prepare to have your background denigrated on a regular basis, especially if you're from Dublin.

What's changed since I filled out my CAO form?
– The area of greatest change since February has been in the FETAC Level 5 entry requirements for programmes in the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences. Full details of all these changes can be found at: ucc.ie/en/study/undergrad/how/fetac/acsss/

– From 2013 onwards, students who take Spanish and Italian in first year will now, for the first time, be able to continue with both subjects to degree level.
The advice from UCC
UCC advises students to think carefully about their choices and put them in order of preference, regardless of points – points should not dictate course preferences on the CAO list as they change from year to year. This, they say, is one of the biggest mistakes that students make.

Most popular CAO course 2012?
Arts Programme (CK101), Medicine (CK701).

What courses have declined in popularity?
Demand for programmes in engineering and architecture has been falling.

Weirdest fact about UCC?
College authorities buried (1934) and later exhumed (1995) a statue of Queen Victoria in the president's garden at UCC.

UCC in three words
Vibrant, rewarding, transforming.