CAO applications to Trinity reach record highs

Posted on: 09 March 2021

First preference applications to Trinity programmes for 2021 via the CAO have increased by 38% for a record high of 10,253 students.

Data from the Central Applications Office issued today shows that 14.5 % of applicants for Level 8 courses in the CAO system have picked Trinity as their first choice (12% in 2020). Overall applicants to Trinity are up 32% at 22,729.

Highlights include:

• First preference applications for Engineering have increased by 44%; Computer Science is up 56%.
• A total of 264 students have applied for the new E3 course Environmental Science and Engineering, with 37 students putting it down as their first preference.
• Applications for our new flagship Trinity Joint Honours programme has doubled and first preferences have almost trebled with many new and attractive combinations added.
• First preference applications for Medicine rose by 58%.
• First preference applications also rose in Dental Science (19%); Physiotherapy (38%)and Radiation Therapy (16%).
• First preference applications for BESS were up 40%.
• In Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, first preferences for History were up 90%, Psychology 66% and PPES (Philosophy, Political Science Economics and sociology) was up 62%.

Trinity Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast said:

These are record numbers and we are thrilled to see such an increase in interest in attending Trinity in 2021/2022, evident across all our faculties and Schools.  There has been an enormous increase in interest in the Health Sciences in particular, but our STEM and Arts/Humanities and Social Sciences courses are also attracting greater numbers of interested students. I am also particularly pleased that our new Trinity Joint Honours programme is proving to be so attractive to prospective students. We look forward to welcoming an enthusiastic new cohort of students in September as they embark on a new phase of their education.

Trinity Vice-Provost Juergen Barkhoff said:

We are conscious of – and indeed moved by – the trust that these students are placing in Trinity. We want to reassure them that the beginning of the vaccination programme gives us good reason to hope that much of the University will be back to normal when these students enter Trinity for the first time. Trinity’s researchers, its teaching staff and most of all Trinity’s students have shown themselves to be remarkably resilient. We are now carefully and thoroughly preparing for a slow and safe return to normal University life.