CAO points shoot up for Commerce and Science at NUIG

With the first round of CAO offers out this morning NUI Galway reports an increase in demand for Commerce and Science courses and a significant increase in the points required for many courses.

There has been a huge increase in demand for Commerce courses in NUI Galway with General Commerce increasing from 340 to 375 points.  Reflecting students’ awareness of the need for language mobility in a global jobs market Commerce (International) with French has increased by 30 points to 525, Commerce (International) with German is up 45 to 450 and Commerce (International) with Spanish is up 50 points to 460. Business Information Systems recorded an increase of 30 points to 400 while Commerce (Accounting) is up 20 to 440.

Science courses, equally, show increased demand. Against the backdrop of NUI Galway’s national and international leadership in biomedical science programmes, Biomedical Science rose from 540 to 545, Biopharmaceutical Chemistry is at 505 (up 10), Biotechnology is at 465 (up 20) and Environmental Science is up 25 at 400. A new course in Physics is offering places to those students with 400 CAO points or more.

Another new course Arts with Journalism at 480 points generated significant interest. Arts, the second largest CAO undergraduate course in the country remains unchanged at 300 points despite the downward trend in Arts courses nationally.  In Law, both Civil Law (up 10) and Corporate Law (up 15) recorded increases.

Engineering courses remain popular with Leaving Cert students with Electrical and Electronic Engineering soaring 60 points to 515, while Civil Engineering and Project and Construction Management both increased by 30 points.   Energy Systems Engineering, taught in NUI Galway’s award winning Engineering Building and home to the largest School of Engineering and Informatics in Ireland, increased 10 points to 440.

Podiatry, the only course of its’ kind in Ireland, is up 10 points to 470. There was also an increase in demand for General Nursing, Psychiatric Nursing and Midwifery courses while  the demand for Medicine remained largely unchanged.

More reports and analysis in this week’s Sentinel out tomorrow