More than 22,000 second-level students attended the Irish Times/ Institute of Guidance Counsellors Higher Options conference, which ended at the RDS in Dublin yesterday.
This annual three-day conference and exhibition, aimed at second-level students to help them select courses and colleges, had more than 200 colleges participating. All Irish third-level colleges, as well as British and Northern Ireland colleges, participated. Teagasc, FAS, the Defence Forces, the Garda, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the Nursing Careers Centre and CERT were also there.
While British colleges are recruiting heavily, fewer students from the State are going to colleges in Britain and the North than in previous years.
In 1997 the British central applications body, UCAS, received 11,213 applications compared to 6,797 in the current year. There are several reasons for this: the increase in the number of higher and further education places in the State, the introduction of fees in Britain and Northern Ireland and the abolition of fees here.