600 extra college places to come on stream in September

More than 600 additional college places will come on stream this September, according to Ireland’s Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, writes Emma O Kelly for RTE.

The places are concentrated in healthcare, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy and other key courses. A proportion of the places will be in Northern Ireland but ring fenced for students coming from the Republic and include 200 places in nursing.

September will also see the introduction of post-leaving certificate courses to train speech and language therapist assistants in five education and training boards, with an estimated 120 students expected to avail of these programmes. The development is good news for central applications office applicants and may lead to an easing of pressure on points for some courses.
Full report on the RTE site