Peader Cremin, president of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, says that students who do not get places in BEd programmes should not be discouraged. There is a postgraduate option (which is offered when teacher supply lags behind demand). "The public perception is that it is very difficult to get into this postgraduate option," he adds, but this is not true. For instance, there were some 600 applicants for 100 postgraduate places in Mary Immaculate when the last course was advertised, a ratio of six applicants to one place. Just over a year ago, the college had more than 3,000 applicants for 300 first-year places on the BEd, in effect, 10 applicants for each place.

There is also the possibility of applying to the BEd as a mature student once you are 23, he points out.