As next Monday’s deadline for acceptance of CAO offers looms closer, Athlone Institute of Technology has announced there are still places available on six full-time undergraduate courses.
And with record numbers of Leaving Cert students applying for third level places this year, AIT is hoping to match last year’s record numbers when over 1,300 first years began their studies at the Athlone institution, a figure which represented a huge jump from the 1,000 who started the previous year.
The additional places announced this week are in the areas of science, accounting, and tourism. Two honours degree courses are available in Toxicology and in Accounting and Law, while places are also available on higher certificate and ordinary degree courses in Bar Supervision, Bioscience/Chemistry, Accounting Technician, and Front Office and Tourism Management.
Growing demand for courses this year has seen AIT mirror the national situation, with the majority of courses subject to significant points hikes. First round points for 11 honours degrees and 13 higher certificate and ordinary degrees across all faculties in AIT have risen this year.
Some of the most dramatic leaps in points took place in the tourism, hospitality, and leisure studies sector, with points increasing by 90 to 210 on the recently introduced BA in Spa Management. In business, the popular four-year honours degree programme saw a 45-point increase to 275 points.
In humanities, the points for the honours BA in social care practice rose again this year to 350, up from 325. Points also rose for AIT’s two design degrees, with the four-year honours degree in visual communications jumping 75 points to 635, while the three-year communications degree rose 40 points to 565.
In engineering, there were increases in points for the majority of software and computing courses, while the importance of the green economy was underlined with the rise in points for the three-year renewable energy degree to 290 from 255.
Points for AIT’s built environment programmes run counter to the national trend of declining points on construction courses, with a 30-point increase for the BSc in Construction Technology and Management to 265.
The course with the highest entry points at AIT is the BSc in Veterinary Nursing at 415 points, down 20 from last year. There were dramatic increases for other science programmes, however, such as toxicology, dental nursing, and pharmacy technician. Demand remains strong for AIT’s four nursing degrees.
Application to the six courses still available is through the Central Applications Office (CAO ) and is open to anyone whether or not they had previously applied to the CAO. Full information about each programme is available at www.ait.ie and further information about how to apply can be found at www.cao.ie
