The CAO – the theory and reality

The Central Applications Office (CAO) is a not-for-profit company established by the higher education institutions in the Republic of Ireland. The colleges delegated to the CAO the centralised processing of applications for first-year undergraduates. The colleges still decide on admissions.

All colleges have an agreed points system representing attainment in the Leaving Cert and other internationally recognised second-level terminal exams. The points are applied by the CAO to every applicant’s results (current or previous).

Where an additional assessment (apart from exam grades) is part of determining entry to a course – for example in artistic, musical, architectural, human medicine courses – colleges designate them as “restricted” courses and only accept applications up to February 1st (March 1st for amended applications). The applicants are graded on the additional assessments, to determine suitability for the programme, and these grades are added to their eventual Leaving Cert points score.

Colleges reserve the right to prioritise certain applicants through programmes such as the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR) supporting economically disadvantaged students, Disability Access Route to Education (DARE), elite sport or artistic ability, etc. These students may be offered places in some colleges, with up to 20 per cent fewer CAO points than those required of mainstream applicants.

The points for any given third-level course can rise or fall each year, and is determined by the law of supply and demand. The colleges look at the number of places on a course, and the number of applicants for it who meet the entry requrements, and start by offering places to those with the highest points. The lowest entry point score for any course (published by the CAO after the results) is determined by the points of the student offered the last place.

This should be a random process where the colleges cannot exercise control. But research by a task force on reforming admissions, chaired by Maynooth University president Philip Nolan, shows many colleges seek to control entry points by varying the number of places, and so keep points above a psychologically significant number. For example, far more places are offered on 500 points than on 495. Colleges are in effect manipulating points to market themselves and to attract higher points students.

As applications increase each year, because of our demographic profile, the battle for places on prestigious courses will intensify, and the entry points of the last applicant to squeeze through the door will inevitably increase. The only way to stop this is to increase the number of college places to match population growth.

The number of level 8 honours degrees has grown from just over 200 courses in 2000 to nearly 1,000 today. Courses with a tiny number of places inevitably have very high points. So there is an incentive for colleges to subdivide a large generic programme, with, say, 500 places, into 10 specialised courses in the discipline, with 50 places in each. If the course was offered with 500 places it might have 420 points; by offering 10 courses with 50 places each, each might require points over 500, which the college perceives as prestigious.

Following publicity about this, colleges are under huge pressure to reduce the number of degree programmes. Some colleges, for example UCD and MU, have cut down on courses; others have done little and the overall number of courses has only dipped slightly.

The coming few years will show if there can be a real reduction in the vast range of choices facing students each year. This should lead to lower drop-out rates among first years as they explore wide disciplines before choosing to specialise.