There has been a drop in CAO applications for nursing and medicine courses this year while there was an increase in applications for dentistry.  

According to newly released CAO course choice data, there has been 76,889 applications to the CAO, compared to 78,025 last year, a 1.4% drop. 

There was a 21% increase in students applying for dentistry courses, going from 1,435 to 1,629. 

Veterinary medicine also saw an increase in applications, jumping 12% from 493 to 552. 

Conversely, there was a four-point drop in applications for both nursing and medicine courses. 

Applications for medicine dropped from 3,606 to 3,454, while it dropped from 3,908 to 3,750. 

There was a two-point increase in applications for primary school teaching (2,310), but a 10% drop in applications for secondary school teaching (1,961). 

Environment courses saw the biggest drop in applications, dropping 17% from 452 to 374. 

There was a 3.5% increase in students applying for the Disability Access Route to Education (DARE), with 10,256 applications. 

There was a drop, however, in four points in people applying for the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR), with 8,277 applicants. 

Applications from Northern Ireland have continued to slide (-10 per cent) to just over 1,000, despite efforts by universities to make it easier for students in North to go to college in the South by ensuring A-levels results translate more fairly to CAO points. 

British applications, however, have increased by 8% to just over 1,000, while EU applicants are up by one point with just over 5,600 applications. 

The extent to which CAO entry points will rise or fall for individual courses will depend on the supply and demand for places across individual courses and the grades achieved by college applicants. 

College applicants will be able to change their course choices, in most cases, until July 1st once a “change of mind” facility opens online on May 7th.