The CAO Handbook 2027 runs to 104 pages, and most of it reads exactly like last year's. The fees are the same. The timetable is the same shape. The points scale has not moved.
But a handful of things have changed, and two of them will catch people out. Here is the comparison against the 2026 edition, published by the Central Applications Office (CAO).
The Statement of Application Record is now the Check and Confirm email
This is a rename, but it matters because the old name is still what most guidance material, school handouts and older blog posts use.
Before the end of May, every applicant gets an email telling them to log in and verify their details. In 2026 that was the Statement of Application Record, and it lived at cao.ie/soar. For 2027 it is the Check and Confirm email, and the instructions page is cao.ie/confirm.
The follow-up email is renamed too. After Round One offers issue, anyone who did not receive an offer in Round A, Round Zero or Round One used to get a Statement of Application email. That is now also called a Check and Confirm email.
The job it does has not changed. You log in, check your account and examination information is complete and correct, and click Confirm. CAO's language around it is unchanged and unsubtle: there may be very serious consequences for your application if you do not follow the instructions immediately.
HEAR and DARE documents cannot be uploaded
This is the change most likely to cost someone a place, because uploading is the obvious thing to do and the handbook now rules it out in plain terms.
For DARE, the 2027 handbook states directly that you are not permitted to upload DARE documents. Anything you are asked to supply — Section C of the Supplementary Information Form, a psychological assessment report, a Section D school statement — has to be posted to arrive at CAO by 5pm on 10 March 2027.
For HEAR, the wording has shifted as well. Where the 2026 handbook told applicants to post supporting documents as a standard step, the 2027 version frames it around Priority Group applicants and applicants who are instructed to supply documents. The instruction is the same: you are not permitted to upload HEAR supporting documents, and any you are required to supply must be posted.
The 2027 handbook also adds a step for HEAR applicants that was not spelled out the same way before: carefully follow the instructions on the HEAR application form for the assessment of HEAR income and social welfare criteria.
If you are posting anything to CAO, the handbook's own advice is to number and date every page, write your CAO application number on each one, send only CAO supporting documents in that envelope, and get a free Certificate of Posting from the post office. Do not register the post — the Certificate of Posting is what CAO wants if anything goes missing.
Carrying forward HEAR or DARE eligibility has a hard limit
Eligibility from 2026 carries forward for one year into 2027, provided you apply to CAO by 1 February 2027 at 5pm, indicate you want to apply, and enter your correct 2026 CAO application number by 5pm on 1 March 2027. For HEAR that number goes in Section 7 of the online HEAR form. For DARE it goes at Question 1(b) of the Supplementary Information Form, with Question 1 ticked Yes.
You must still be under 23 as of 1 January 2027.
The 2027 handbook spells out something the 2026 edition did not: eligibility that was already carried forward from 2025 to 2026 cannot be carried again from 2026 to 2027. One carry, once. Our HEAR and DARE guide covers both schemes end to end.
University of Galway graduate entry medicine
Two related changes. GY506 Medicine (Graduate Entry) appears in the 2027 handbook as a new course at University of Galway, requiring GAMSAT and an additional test.
Separately, the handbook now states that graduate medicine applicants to University of Galway will have to undertake an additional assessment or interview as part of the assessment process. Graduate medicine documents must be posted to CAO rather than uploaded.
The GAMSAT sittings that count for 2027 entry are September 2025, March 2026, September 2026 and March 2027, and you must have flagged on the registration that you are applying to an Irish programme.
Marino Institute of Education added to the exemptions list
Where the 2026 handbook listed NUI, TCD and UL as the bodies whose exemptions appear in the Qualifications and Assessment section of your account, the 2027 edition adds Marino Institute of Education. The NUI exemptions link has changed to exemptions.nui.ie, and there is a new general page at cao.ie/exemptions.
Recognition of Prior Learning for mature applicants
The mature applicant section now mentions that some colleges may consider Recognition of Prior Learning, and advises contacting your preferred institution directly to confirm whether RPL is available and what it involves. This was not in the 2026 edition.
Carlow College, St Patrick's is no longer in the handbook
Carlow College, St Patrick's had its own course listing and contact entry in the 2026 handbook. Neither appears in 2027.
The background is public. In May 2026 the college announced a two-year wind-down, with no new student intakes from September 2026, and an agreed framework under which South East Technological University takes over the campus while Carlow College continues to teach out its existing students. The college withdrew its undergraduate courses from CAO for 2026 at that point.
If you were considering Carlow College, the practical effect is that those courses are not available through CAO for 2027 and you should look at SETU and other south-east providers instead.
Twenty-nine new courses
The 2027 handbook flags 29 courses as new, down from 46 in the 2026 edition. They are spread across teacher education, computing, health and sustainability. We have broken the full list down in every new course in the CAO 2027 handbook.
What did not change
Worth stating plainly, because a lot of these get asked every year:
- The fees are identical to 2026: €35 early, €50 normal, €65 late, €10 to amend course choices, Change of Mind free.
- The timetable dates are the same calendar positions: 5 November, 20 January, 1 February, 1 March, 5 March, 10 March, 1 May, 5 May, 1 July. The full list is on our CAO 2027 key dates page.
- The HEI Common Points Scale is unchanged, including the 25 bonus points for Higher Level Maths at H6 or above.
- You still get ten Level 8 and ten Level 7/6 choices.
- Available Places still costs €50 for new applicants and remains free for existing applicants.
Sources: CAO Handbook 2027 and CAO Handbook 2026, both published by the Central Applications Office. Carlow College background from statements published by Carlow College, St Patrick's and South East Technological University in May 2026, and contemporaneous reporting. Dates are as published by CAO and may be amended.