The number of people applying to the Central Applications Office (CAO) this year has increased by 8.5 per cent, as 79,176 applications have been received so far.
Last year, 72,973 people applied to the CAO, which allocates higher and further education places in the State.
Over 10,000 people applied through the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR) scheme, which aims to support students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds in accessing higher education.
In contrast to the increases noted in most areas of the CAO applications breakdown, the number of HEAR applications fell by 9.5 per cent compared to 2020, dropping from 11,066 last year to 10,016.
There were also 7,839 applications received by the Disability Access Route to Education (DARE) scheme, increasing from 7,252 in 2020.
Over 70,000 people applied for Level 8 courses, representing an honours bachelor degree or higher diploma, while over 33,000 applied for Level 6/7 courses.
Perhaps influenced by the ongoing efforts of healthcare workers during the pandemic, health courses received the highest number of mentions in this year's Level 8 applications, increasing to 82,620 from 65,666 last year.
Health courses also had the highest number of first preference mentions on Level 8 applications, followed by business and administration.
For Level 6/7 courses, business and administration was the most often mentioned and also received the largest number of first preferences.
Transport services courses had the largest decrease in first preference mentions among Level 8 applications, falling by 44 per cent, followed by interdisciplinary programmes involving arts and humanities (down 33 per cent), and manufacturing and processing courses (down 25 per cent).
Level 8 mentions for languages also fell by 8 per cent compared to last year's figures.
Education noted huge increases among Level 6/7 applicants, jumping by 185 per cent in total mentions and 238 per cent in first preference mentions.
Interest in environment (up 70 per cent overall) and social and behavioural science courses (up 65 per cent) were also recorded, while interdisciplinary programmes involving agriculture, forestry and veterinary, and welfare courses were the only two Level 6/7 categories to note reductions in the number of applications received this year.
