Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Education and Science will continue to work through the Higher Education Authority to see in what way he can monitor demand and identify opportunities to maximise the use of existing and available resources in responding to growing demand. The number of on-line applications for 2010 is 71,232. This means the current ratio of applicants to places is 1.6:1 rather than the ratio of 2:1 which was mentioned. At any rate, in any given year the eventual number of entrants to higher education will be considerably less than the number of initial applicants, perhaps due to applicants not meeting academic entry requirements for their courses of choice, leaving certificate students deciding to repeat, applicants deciding to defer places or taking places in Northern Ireland or other parts of the UK, applicants entering post-leaving certificate or apprenticeship programmes or simply changing their minds about going to the college. The Minister will continue to see in what way he can assist with the available resources to maximise the places available.

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