It has been confirmed that there will be a ‘significant expansion’ in courses outside the CAO points system in the next academic year.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris announced the good news for next year’s students.
While speaking at the Higher Options and World Skills event in the RDS, Harris revealed that due to the immense interest shown in courses outside the CAO points system, these courses will be expanded for students who wish to follow new pathways.
When discussing the expansion, the Minister stated, “After the huge interest shown in the courses outside the CAO system, I am thrilled to confirm a significant expansion for the next academic year”.
“This year over 800 students applied to the first batch of courses outside the CAO points system, which shows the huge level of interest there is in these new pathways”.
Harris continued, “Today, a new call issues for the next round of courses and I want to see the number of programmes available to students double”.
“Expanding the number of courses is part of the important change and historic reform my Department and I are driving in order to truly improve the further and higher education system. We are doing this by allowing more and more students access education no matter their Leaving Cert results, no matter the points they get”.
This announcement comes after Harris launched a degree route to ensure undergraduate students could undertake a single programme to earn a university degree outside of the traditional points system.
The introduction of the new Joint Tertiary degree route has created a seamless transition from Further Education to Higher Education and has provided new pathways for learners to study outside the CAO process.
