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Almost 1,920 students have applied for level eight agricultural courses this year, according to the latest figures from the Central Applications Office (CAO). This represents a 14% surge on 2018 figures.
Almost 400 put it as their first choice (up 13%), while just over 1,670 students applied for interdisciplinary courses involving agriculture, forestry and veterinary.
Green Cert drop
However, there was a slight drop in students applying for the Green Cert.
Just over 1,550 students have applied for level six and seven agricultural courses this year. This represents a 1% drop on 2018.
Almost 590 students put level six and seven agriculture as their first choice, 2% lower than last year.
Veterinary
The opposite trends occurred in the veterinary field, where the numbers applying for level eight courses went down, while the numbers applying for level six and seven went up.
Just over 1,760 students applied for level eight veterinary, down 7% on last year.
Some 933 students placed level eight veterinary as their first choice.
Meanwhile, the level six and seven veterinary courses rose in popularity again this year. There was a 3% rise in total mentions (2,333) and a 3% rise in first preference (951).
Overall, the total number of CAO applications is up 0.5% from 72,643 to 73,034 this year.
Change of mind
Applicants will be permitted to use the change of mind facility when it opens on 6 May to add, remove or re-order course choices, which will result in changes to the figures released today.
The data provided at this stage is interim data and is subject to change when late applications are taken into account and when the change of mind facility closes on 1 July at 5.15pm.
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