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State Examinations

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 September 2020

Tuesday, 22 September 2020

Questions (601)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

601. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the number of students who missed out on their first choice CAO courses. [24839/20]

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Written answers

The CAO is a company established by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to process applications for undergraduate, and some postgraduate, courses on their behalf. Decisions on admissions are made by the HEIs who then instruct the CAO to make offers to successful candidates. Therefore application and offer data is held by the CAO, not by my Department.

According to data released by the CAO, there were a total of 78,168 applicants this year, up marginally from 77,706 applicants last year. 24,458 applicants received an offer for a first preference Level 8 course, and 28,677 applicants received an offer for a first preference Level 7/6 course in Round One of the CAO offer process this year. This compares to 23,129 first preference Level 8 offers and 27,274 first preference Level 7/6 Offers in 2019.

However these figures are from Round One only and do no include first preference offers received by applicants in Round A and Round Zero of the CAO offer process. 12,443 offers were made during these rounds in 2020, and data on how many of these were first preference offers is not held by my Department.

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