Fact File

Starting salaries in 1999: £15,000 to £20,000 per annum with most graduates earning in the region of £15,000 to £18,000. Computer science graduates - where they went: degree graduates of 1997 were surveyed in April 1998. It was found that 76.3 per cent were employed in Ireland; 12.5 per cent were employed abroad; 9.0 per cent went on to research or further academic study; 1.2 were not available for employment or study while 0.9 per cent were seeking employment. Source: Higher Education Authority study.

Courses:

there are full-time third-level courses on offer in all of the universities, in the institutes of technology, the National College of Ireland and some of the private third-level colleges. These courses range from certificate to diploma to degree. Courses are also offered at Post Leaving Certificate level.

Add-on degrees:

Athlone IT - software engineering; Carlow IT: software engineering, computer networking; Cork IT: computer applications; Dundalk IT: commercial computing; GMIT: information systems management; Griffith: computing science; Limerick IT: information systems; Letterkenny IT: applied computing; NCI: software systems; Sligo IT: computing; Tallaght IT: computing information technology; Tralee IT: information systems management; computing (software development); WIT: commercial software development.