Largest number of CAO first preferences ever for DCU

09/03/2015

Strong CAO interest in new offerings from expanded, post-incorporation DCU

This year’s CAO First Round statistics reveal significant gains for programmes across all four faculties at DCU and very strong interest in programmes offered by the new Institute of Education and enhanced Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences which will emerge from DCU’s Incorporation process that will bring St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Mater Dei Institute of Education and the Church of Ireland College of Education into DCU. The University has reached 5,500 first preference applications for the first time ever, with more than 1,000 of these received for programmes within the Institute of Education.

The Institute of Education, which will become the 5th faculty at DCU, has been boosted by an increase of more than 13% in first preference applications across Education programmes, a recognition that the new Institute will be the leading provider of teacher education and
education research on the island of Ireland. In addition, the new Joint Honours programmes in Humanities, arising from the DCU Incorporation process, have proved to be very popular, experiencing an increase of 12% in first preferences.

Elsewhere in Humanities & Social Sciences, strong upward surges were seen in:

Law & Society - up 41.4%
Gnó agus Gaeilge - up 28.6%
International Relations - up 19.2%
Multimedia - up 10.5%

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) degree programmes at DCU have also experienced increases in first preference applications. In Engineering & Computing, there were very strong performances in:

Common Entry Engineering (up 24.1%);
Computational Problem Solving and Software Development (up 29.2%), a novel degree programme that requires applicants to present a portfolio of work which demonstrates their passion for technology and programming.

Against a backdrop of falling demand for Science subjects nationally (down 5%), the flagship Sports Science & Health programme in DCU’s Faculty of Science & Health saw an increase in first preferences of 8.1%. Nursing programmes at DCU are up 4% overall, bucking the
national trend (down 2.2%) in this area. Particularly significant increases were also seen in:

Common Entry Maths - up 111.1%
Applied Physics - up 55.6%
Biotechnology - up 35.7%
Analytical Science - up 31.3%

In DCU Business School, first preference choices were up 7.4% overall, representing a 30% increase over the last 5 years. Of particular note was the Marketing, Innovation and Technology which marries creativity, discovery and innovation with a range of technologies, from ICT to emerging life sciences and biotechnology, where applications rose this year by 31.2%, increasing more than two-fold over the last five years. Aviation Management and the broad-based Business Studies programme both experienced significant rises, of 32% and 12.4%, respectively.

Responding to this first set of outputs from the CAO process, Professor Brian MacCraith, President of DCU said,
“These first round CAO figures are very encouraging indeed as they demonstrate a growing recognition amongst prospective students and parents of the major opportunities and promise of the expanded DCU arising from the incorporation of St Patrick's College, Drumcondra,
Mater Dei Institute of Education and the Church of Ireland Institute of Education. Our strong performance in STEM and Business programmes is an endorsement of our commitment to providing students with industry-relevant programmes which equip them with the knowledge and tools to contribute in existing and future sectors of the economy.”