CAO 2022: Steep decrease in applications for nursing and health-related courses

Arts, environment and language courses have recorded sharp increases in first-preference college applications this year.

By contrast, nursing and many health-related courses show some of the steepest decreases. Popular fields of study such as business, law and science are also down slightly this year.

Overall, latest Central Applications Offices (CAO) figures as of March 1st show there are 78,000 college applications this year, a 1.5 per cent decline on last year.

There are fewer mature applicants compared to 2021 (-25 per cent), though this has been partly offset by an increase in EU (+16 per cent) and British application (+9 per cent).

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CAO points overall are likely to remain at about last year's record-high levels due to a pledge by Minister for Education Norma Foley that Leaving Cert grades will be no lower than last year.

There is particularly strong interest in environment-related courses which have one of the biggest increases in first-preferences this year (+35 per cent).

Climate and sustainability

Universities say this is reflected in a jump in applications for courses linked to climate change and sustainability.

UCD, for example, says applications to its interdisciplinary degree in sustainability are up 43 per cent, while city planning and environmental policy is up 44 per cent.

Other areas nationally where there are significant increases in applications include languages (+17 per cent), architecture and construction (both up 6 per cent).

Arts (+6 per cent) and humanities (+4 per cent) are also up for the second year in a row, reversing a trend of declining applications over recent years.

In addition, interdisciplinary courses involving arts and humanities are up sharply (+59 per cent).

The rebound of arts across individual universities is striking. Maynooth University, for example, said its popular arts degree – which has the highest number of first-preference applications of any CAO course – is up by 11 per cent this year.

There is a similar pattern at Trinity College Dublin where there is high demand for arts and humanities courses such as English studies (+21 per cent), European studies (+23 per cent) and philosophy (+54 per cent). UCD also said its humanities course (+29 per cent) was up significantly.

Mid-wifery down

Some of the biggest decreases are in the health sector, such as nursing and midwifery which is down 27 per cent on last year.

In the wider area of health (-13 per cent), there is an uneven pattern with physiotherapy (-9 per cent) and pharmacy down (-7 per cent), while medicine is up (+4 per cent).

Agriculture is also down sharply (-19 per cent), as are smaller sectors such as transport (-50 per cent ) and hygiene and occupational health services (-41 per cent).

Business and administration remains one of the most popular fields of study, but is down slightly on last year (-3 per cent).

The so-called Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) area is a mixed bag this year.

Social and behavioural science is down (-6 per cent) along with biological and related science (-2 per cent), while physical science is up (+5 per cent).

ICT is continuing its upward trend (+6 per cent) this year, while engineering remains unchanged.

The latest data is subject to change when late applications are taken into account when the CAO’s change of mind facility closes on July 1st.