College Offers are out...what happened to elec eng?

The offers of college and university places in Ireland came out today.

Out of curiosity I checked out how many points were required for the course I did (Electrical/Electronic Engineering in University College Cork). When I sat the leaving certificate (in 1996, almost 10 years ago...which makes me feel old) it took 465 points to get into the course, which is exactly what I got. Now it's only 330 points. Computer Science in UCC is *only* 300 points..while courses like medicine, dentistry and pharmacy are in the high 500 range.

It's now tougher to get into a general 3 years arts degree (345 points) then to get into the 4 year electrical engineering course (330 points). In fact elec eng has one of the lowest point barriers in UCC (computer science is tied with food science as the easiest course in terms of points to get into in UCC).

So? Well it shows that the points system is purely market driven - supply and demand. Points are a subjective value placed on the course by the applicants and may or may not reflect the related difficulty or job prospects.

Compared to when I studied either the supply of places in elec eng is higher, the demand is lower or more likely both conditions are true. Since the telecomms and dot com bust in 2001 the perception is that the tech sector is not a good career route. Points reflect demand and a change from 465 to 330 (granted over a 10 year period) is substantial.

I scraped in on 465 points in 1996 and struggled during the first couple of years on the course (which had a very heavy maths/physics content). I just wonder how the students making it onto the course with around 330 points will fare?

Edit: For some further (and non-UCC specific) reading ElectricNews has an article on the points required this year for CAO IT courses.