Points up for most courses in Galway colleges

Date Published: 23-Aug-2010

By Darragh McDonagh

The first round of CAO offers for Galway colleges was largely reflective of broad economic trends yesterday as points fell for construction-related courses and increased in the area of science.

Points rose across a range of courses nationally as demand for third-level places increased amidst growing unemployment, but continued to fall for the third consecutive year in the area of property and construction.

The requirement for Project and Construction Management at NUI, Galway dropped by 30 points to 320 this year, while Construction Management at GMIT fell by the same margin to 280.

The trend continued across a range of engineering courses at NUIG, where Engineering (both Civil and Undenominated) dropped by five and 10 points respectively to 395.Demand for architecture and property courses fell throughout the country as the collapse of the sector continued over the last year and the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) reported that more than 50% of its members are currently unemployed.

There were signs of a revival in the area of science following a marked decline in demand last year. Science in NUIG climbed 25 points to 325 in the first round of offers, while Biomedical Science rose by 20 points to 365.

Read more in this week’s Connacht Sentinel