The awarding of points for the Leaving Certificate class of 2020 and subsequent issuing of course offers by the Central Applications Office (CAO) has been a truly unusual experience for students, their families, teachers and all involved in the process.

Friday’s issuing by the CAO of 78,950 round-one offers to 53,815 applications was dominated by dialogue on the sharp increase in points across many courses. The points required for courses increased for over two-thirds of Level 8 courses and over 60% of Level 7/6 courses. The increase stemmed from an increase in Leaving Cert grades rather than a jump in CAO applications. There is also controversy surrounding the calculated grades process and in particular the standardisation process which reduced almost 17% of all Leaving Cert grades by one grade.

The awarding of Leaving Cert points in 2020 by calculated grades resulted in the highest average points score on record with average points increasing by 4.4%. This, in turn, fuelled the points increase.

Agriculture

Courses in agriculture, veterinary medicine and food-related disciplines broadly followed the national trend. The table (over) details the CAO first round points offers for Level 8 courses in 2020 and how they compare to first round offers for the last four years.

Looking at University College Dublin (UCD) firstly the general entry agricultural science degree course increased by 33 points to reach 456, similar to the level recorded in 2017 and 2016. Agricultural science in University College Cork (UCC) increased by 23 points to 496 points although not all applicants with this points score are guaranteed entry.

The general agricultural science entry reduced by the smallest of margins in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) to 377 points, increased by seven points in Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) to 310 points and fell significantly by 23 points (308 points) in Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT).

Entry in Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LkIT) increased by seven points (307 points). While courses combining agriculture and environmental sciences in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) reduced by 10 points to 287 points and in contrast increased by 11 points (297 points) in Limerick Institute of technology (LIT).

Direct entry to agri-environmental sciences increased in UCD by 15 points (418 points) while dairy business recorded a similar increase of 12 points (410 points). Landscape architecture recorded a significant increase of 37 points (407 points) while horticulture, landscape and sportsturf management increased by an even greater level from 252 points in 2019 to 297 points in 2020. Forestry, meanwhile, increased from 303 points to 311.

Veterinary medicines

Veterinary medicine in UCD recorded a significant jump from 567 points in 2019 to 589 points in 2020 with not all applicants receiving this points score offered places. Veterinary nursing in UCD also increased by a similar level from 441 to 478 after reducing marginally in 2019. It is worth noting that animal science or animal science and equine studies which are often used as a precursor to gaining entry to veterinary is accessed through the general entry to agricultural science in UCD which was already discussed above.

Food nutrition

The points entry requirement across food nutrition, food science and related courses has recovered following many courses experiencing a decline in 2019. As detailed in the table, many courses have recorded increases in the region of 25 to 35 points with public health nutrition in Technological University Dublin (TUD) recording the greatest lift of 51 points to stand at 491 points.

Level 7/6 courses

There were some notable changes to the points requirement for Level 7/6 courses detailed in the table also. Agriculture in Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) increased by 51 points to 321 with environmental science and agriculture in LIT also increasing from 226 points in 2019 to 278 points in 2020. Meanwhile the points requirement reduced significantly for agriculture in the ITT and in WIT. There was a sharp increase in the forestry course in the latter college with points rising from 181 to 243.

Veterinary nursing recorded upward movement in DkIT (377 points to 399) and Letterkenny Institute of Technology (356 points to 367) and remained steady at 400 points in Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT).

Accepting offers

It has been a whirlwind few weeks for students given the level of discussions firstly surrounding calculated grades and standardisation and then the increase in CAO points for numerous courses. There is also a cohort of students who sat their Leaving Cert in 2019 and were confident of applying for courses in 2020, only to find that some courses are now out of their reach by merit of the points increase.

Over 50% of Level 8 students are reported as being offered their first preference, which is a reduction of about 1% on 2019. While some 80% of Level 8 offers are said to be among students’ top three preferences, which is a similar reduction of about 1% on 2019.

The time period for accepting first-round offers has also passed since 3pm on Wednesday 16 September. A student accepting a first-round offer that is a lower preference does not prevent them from accepting a course higher up on their course list in a later round offer if a place becomes available and they are deemed eligible.

CAO communications officer Eileen Keleghan advises that round-two offers will be available to view on the CAO website from 10am on Wednesday 23 September. The reply date by which round two offers must be accepted is Friday 25 September at 12pm. Offers are then issued on a weekly basis to fill any remaining places.

Eileen says: “It is important that applicants notify CAO immediately using the ‘Correspondence Section’ of their CAO account if there are any errors or omissions in their CAO account. They must make sure to do this well in advance of the next offer round to allow any corrections to be considered in subsequent offer rounds. You can contact CAO by sending an email from the ‘Correspondence Section’ of your CAO account”.