Increase in demand for broad range of GMIT programmes from Business to Design, Technology, Sport Science, Engineering and Agriculture

Monday, August 22, 2016 Press Office
Press Release

Demand for Engineering, Computing, Design, Agriculture and Business degree courses in GMIT is higher this year (2016) compared to last, new CAO figures show.

There has been a 60% increase in offers for Agriculture programmes at the GMIT Mountbellew campus, partly due to the addition of two new honours offerings - Business in Rural Enterprise and Agri-Business (GA187) and Agriculture & Environmental Management (GA789), involving collaborations between the Schools of Business and Science at the Galway (Dublin Road) campus and the Mountbellew campus.

There has been a marked 80% increase in offers for new programmes in GMIT’s Centre for the Creative Arts and Media (CCAM), mainly due to new design courses and a reconfiguration of the traditional Art & Design courses.

Michael Hannon, GMIT Vice President for Academic Affairs and Registrar, says: “Overall, GMIT has made up to 20% more offers at honours degree level this year (2016) compared to last. There is evidence of confidence returning to the construction sector with increased offers being made on all of our construction related programmes in the School of Engineering.”

“Demand is still strong for Science related programmes as well as for Mechanical Engineering, Computing and Business programmes. Unfortunately, not all programmes are showing increased demand. The Institute has identified five courses that showed insufficient demand to justify making offers this year.”

Mr Hannon says “The Institute’s strategy of responding to market demand and skills needs is succeeding as evidenced by the significant increase in demand for our suite of Level 8 programmes, particularly the exciting new programme in Sport and Exercise Science, new programmes in Design, and great interest in our Agriculture courses.”

“This year our specialist degrees in our School of Business - Finance, Marketing and Sales, Finance and Economics, and Business with Entrepreneurship, have also proved popular and show that students know what areas of Business they want to study in their first year.”

Leaving Certificate students who meet the minimum entry requirements and did not get an offer are encouraged to review a number of GMIT programmes on the ‘Vacant Places’ section of the CAO website. This option has proved popular in previous years for many students and is open to prospective students from Tuesday 23 August, 2016. For more information check out www.cao.ie or www.gmit.ie/cao