Donegal students face a decision almost no other county faces at scale: apply through the CAO, or through UCAS to Northern Ireland. Almost 43% of everyone entering the two Northern Ireland universities in 2023 came from Donegal. That doubles the work in a guidance office that the Institute of Guidance Counsellors already identifies as under the most acute pressure in the country. This page sets out both systems, and what SUSI does and does not cover.
Guidance in Donegal, by the numbers
Department of Education and Youth data for 2025/26 records 27 post-primary schools in County Donegal, with 14,980 students enrolled. For the 2026/27 year, the Department reported 14,695 post-primary students as schools reopened, including 2,531 first years, out of 33,747 pupils across primary and post-primary.
Of the 27 post-primary schools:
- 15 are ETB vocational schools, 6 community, 4 voluntary secondary and 2 comprehensive
- 19 of the 27 are DEIS schools — the highest proportion of the five counties in this series
- None are fee-paying
- 7 are in Gaeltacht areas
- 2 are on islands — Gairmscoil Mhic Dhiarmada on Árainn Mhór (61 students) and Coláiste Phobail Cholmcille on Oileán Thoraí (11)
- The largest are Carndonagh Community School (1,119), St Eunan's College (1,003), Abbey Vocational School (999), St Columba's College Stranorlar (983) and Loreto Secondary School Letterkenny (938)
Donegal's post-primary enrolment grew 17.1% over the past decade — the third-lowest increase of any county, against a national total of 429,653 students in 721 schools.
There is no published figure for how many guidance counsellors work in Donegal. The Department does not break guidance allocation down by county.
What one guidance allocation has to cover
Guidance hours are allocated through the pupil-teacher ratio. The Institute of Guidance Counsellors' Pre-Budget Submission for 2026 records the current allocations as 18.4 in non-DEIS schools and 17.65 in DEIS schools, against IGC targets of 18.0 and 17.25. With 19 of Donegal's 27 schools in DEIS, most Donegal students are in the second category.
From the same submission, surveying the IGC's roughly 1,500 members:
- 87% report insufficient time to respond to student needs
- 40% of second-level schools and colleges nationally use staff without a guidance counselling qualification for one-to-one guidance
- 72% report "holding" students themselves because of difficulty referring them on
- 64% of sole guidance counsellors receive under 95% of their school's allocated guidance hours
Donegal is the one county in this series where the regional pressure is named in a source rather than inferred: the IGC identifies the shortage as particularly acute in the North-West.
The Teachers' Union of Ireland's April 2025 submission supplies the history: 600 ex-quota guidance posts were removed in 2012 and restoration is incomplete. Between 2011/12 and 2015/16, time spent on one-to-one counselling fell 53.5%, from 12.0 hours a week to 5.59. The TUI is seeking a 250:1 ratio, in line with OECD practice.
None of this is a criticism of counsellors. It describes a service with more demand than hours — and in Donegal, a service that has to cover two application systems rather than one.
The decision that is specific to Donegal: CAO or UCAS
Speaking to an Oireachtas committee on behalf of the Technological Higher Education Association in February 2024, Paul Hannigan, Head of College at ATU Donegal, reported that almost 43% of all students entering the two Northern Ireland universities in 2023 were from Donegal, and that 72.7% of students from the Republic at Ulster University and Queen's University Belfast came from the six border counties.
The two systems work differently, and the differences matter.
| CAO (Republic) | UCAS (Northern Ireland) | |
|---|---|---|
| Basis of offer | Points, competitively ranked | Published entry requirements |
| Certainty | Cut-off unknown until offers issue | Ulster University states that meeting the published requirements guarantees a place |
| Deadline | 1 February for the standard fee | UCAS deadlines differ; UU guarantees accommodation for Firm choices applying by 7 July |
| Tuition | Free Fees Initiative applies to eligible students | Tuition Fee Loan, repayable once earning over £26,900 |
| SUSI | Maintenance and, where eligible, fees | Maintenance grant only — tuition is not covered |
That last row is the single most important line on this page. SUSI provides a maintenance grant for undergraduate study outside the State, but it does not cover tuition fees. Income thresholds for the outside-the-State maintenance grant run from €28,600 for the Special Rate to €58,470 at Band 4.
At postgraduate level SUSI recognises only four Northern Ireland institutions: Queen's University Belfast, University of Ulster, St Mary's University College Belfast (PGCE Irish Medium) and Stranmillis University College (PGCE).
Level 5 courses in Northern Ireland are not SUSI-eligible, which matters for the many Donegal students who attend North West Regional College. The most recent public reporting on that point dates from 2017, so anyone relying on it should confirm current eligibility with SUSI directly rather than take an old figure at face value.
Distance, and what SUSI pays
SUSI's adjacent rate applies where the college is under 30km from a student's normal residence; the non-adjacent rate applies at 30km or more. For 2026/27 the difference is substantial:
| Band | Adjacent | Non-adjacent |
|---|---|---|
| Special Rate | €3,230 | €7,936 |
| Band 1 | €1,774 | €4,722 |
| Band 2 | €1,343 | €3,532 |
| Band 3 | €975 | €2,702 |
| Band 4 | €612 | €1,866 |
With ATU Letterkenny the only university campus in the county, most Donegal students living outside the Letterkenny area fall into the non-adjacent bracket. That is worth calculating before ruling a course out on cost.
Census 2022 recorded that 37% of Donegal residents aged 15 and over hold a third-level qualification, against 45% nationally — though the number rose from around 32,600 in 2016 to over 41,300 in 2022.
The four decisions a Donegal student is making
1. Subject choice, in third year
Subject choice narrows the courses available three years later, because specific courses carry specific subject requirements — and the requirements differ between Irish and UK institutions. A student keeping the UCAS option open needs to check both.
2. The CAO
CAO had received 88,817 applications by the 1 February 2026 deadline, up 6.5% on 2025, which was itself up 8.5%. DARE applications rose 15%.
Grades fell in 2026 but points did not follow. Across the 1,395 courses in CourseCompass's Round 1 comparison, 627 rose, 451 fell and 90 were unchanged, an average of +5.9 points.
2,559 Donegal students received Leaving Certificate results on 21 August 2026 — 2,306 taking the established Leaving Certificate and 253 the Leaving Certificate Applied.
CAO offer rounds for 2026: Round 1 on 26 August, Round 2 on 7 September, Round 3 on 15 September, Round 4 on 22 September and Round 5 on 29 September. Of the 316 courses that went to Round 2 in 2026, 184 fell in points from Round 1 — an average drop of 16.7 points.
3. PLC courses
Donegal ETB operates 18 FET centres across the county, with locations in Ballybofey, Ballyshannon, Buncrana, Bundoran, Carndonagh, Carrick, Donegal Town, Dungloe, Downings, Falcarragh, Gortahork, Gaoth Dobhair, Glengad, Letterkenny, Lifford, Killybegs, Milford, Moville and Stranorlar.
Three colleges deliver the PLC programme:
| College | Courses |
|---|---|
| Errigal College, Letterkenny | QQI Level 5 in Animal Care; Art, Craft and Design; Business Studies; Construction Technology; Health Service Skills; Inclusive Education and Care |
| Finn Valley College, Stranorlar | QQI Level 5 in Business Administration; Sports, Recreation and Exercise; Early Childhood Care and Education |
| St Catherine's Vocational School, Killybegs | QQI Level 5 Nursing Studies; Early Childhood Care and Education at Levels 5 and 6 |
A PLC is an entry route as well as a destination. Donegal ETB runs a tertiary degree in BSc (Hons) General Nursing with ATU — the first year delivered fee-free at the Business Park Road FET Centre in Letterkenny, then progression to ATU Letterkenny, Castlebar or St Angela's Sligo. Application is direct to the ETB, with no CAO points involved.
Beyond that, ATU and Donegal ETB hold articulation agreements covering 48 ATU programmes, giving holders of a QQI Level 6 Advanced Certificate advanced entry — in some cases straight into year two — without additional assessment.
4. Apprenticeships
Letterkenny Training Centre, at Ballyraine Industrial Estate, is the hub for Donegal ETB's apprenticeship team. Phase 2 off-the-job training is delivered in county for Motor Mechanics, Electrical, Electronic Security Systems, Carpentry and Joinery, Plumbing, and Metal Fabrication. Phase 4 is available in county for Electrical, Metal Fabrication, and Refrigeration and Air Conditioning; Phase 6 for Electrical.
ATU Donegal Letterkenny delivers craft apprenticeships in Electrical, Metal Fabrication, and Refrigeration and Air Conditioning; ATU Donegal Killybegs delivers Electrical.
A new Apprenticeship Academy at Drumnahoagh, Letterkenny — €5.9m, over 1,600m², capacity for 200+ apprentices a year — will deliver Metal Fabrication and Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, described at contract signing as the first time these are offered outside Dublin or Cork, and Ireland's first shared ETB and university apprenticeship building. The construction contract was signed in October 2025.
Nationally, SOLAS figures supplied to the Oireachtas in August 2026 showed 3,017 craft apprentices waiting more than six months for their next off-the-job phase, and 454 waiting more than a year.
Where you can study in and near Donegal
| Institution | What it is |
|---|---|
| ATU Donegal Letterkenny | Almost 5,000 students from 32 countries; four faculties — Business; Design, Education and Social Science; Engineering and Computing; Science and Health |
| ATU Donegal Killybegs | Culinary arts, hospitality and tourism; Ocean Innovation Centre under construction |
| BIM National Fisheries College, Greencastle | Marine engineering, skipper and crew training, commercial diving |
| Donegal ETB FET centres | PLC, apprenticeship and tertiary degree provision across 18 locations |
| Ulster University (Magee, Coleraine, Belfast) | Cross-border, via UCAS |
| North West Regional College | Five campuses across Derry, Strabane and Tyrone; Level 1 to Level 6 |
ATU Letterkenny is around 33km from Derry, 45 minutes from Belfast, and three to four hours from Dublin. ATU Killybegs is roughly an hour and a quarter from Letterkenny.
The North West Tertiary Education Cluster, established in 2018, is a formal cross-border partnership between ATU, Ulster University, North West Regional College and Donegal ETB.
In May 2026 the Minister for Education visited Mulroy College Milford, St Eunan's College Letterkenny and Scoil Mhuire Milford, noting €228.24m in capital funding to Donegal schools since 2020, 73 schools upgraded, and Mulroy College's enrolment more than doubling in a decade from under 300 to over 600.
How to get more out of the guidance you do get
The counsellor in your school knows you, knows your school, and can write about you. Nothing replaces that. What you can do is arrive further along than you would otherwise be — and in Donegal, that includes having decided whether you are looking north, south, or both.
Know your interest profile, not just your favourite subject. An interest inventory built on RIASEC produces a shortlist you can argue with.
Know how you learn. A VARK+M learning style profile matters less for the label than for the study strategies that follow from it.
Have a shortlist and a backup route. Come in with courses you have actually looked at, and know whether there is a PLC, tertiary degree or access route into them if the points don't land.
CourseCompass is built for that preparation stage. Course Compass matches you to CAO courses and produces a PDF booklet you can bring to the meeting. PLC Compass and Apprenticeship Compass do the same for Post-Leaving Cert courses and SOLAS apprenticeships. The Subject Interest Test is built for the third-year decision, the Learning Style Test for the study problem. The Backdoor Routes finder maps 2,499 alternative entry routes into 1,009 CAO courses, each with its source and verification date.
For schools, the same tools run from one dashboard, so a counsellor can allocate assessments to a year group, see results in real time, and spend their hours on the students who need them most.
Sources
All figures verified on 10 September 2026.
- School counts and enrolment — Department of Education and Youth, Post-primary Schools 2025/26, Data on Individual Schools, gov.ie
- 2026/27 enrolment — Highland Radio, 30 August 2026, citing Department figures
- Decade enrolment change — Donegal Live, 10 August 2026
- Guidance allocation, counsellor survey, North-West shortage — Institute of Guidance Counsellors, Pre-Budget Submission 2026, June 2025
- Ex-quota posts and one-to-one time — Teachers' Union of Ireland, Submission on guidance resourcing, April 2025
- Cross-border student flow — Paul Hannigan, ATU Donegal, to the Joint Oireachtas Committee for THEA, reported by Donegal Daily, 16 February 2024
- Ulster University entry and fees — ulster.ac.uk/gonorth
- SUSI grant rates and adjacency — susi.ie; outside the State — susi.ie
- Third-level attainment — CSO, Census 2022 Profile 8, Donegal, 19 December 2023
- CAO applications and DARE — RTÉ News, 10 March 2026
- CAO offer round dates — cao.ie
- Donegal Leaving Certificate numbers — Highland Radio, 21 August 2026
- Donegal ETB FET centres and PLC colleges — donegaletb.ie
- Tertiary degree — donegaletb.ie
- Articulation agreements — Donegal ETB, 1 May 2026
- ATU campuses — ATU Donegal Letterkenny; ATU Donegal Killybegs
- Apprenticeship Academy — ATU, 15 October 2025
- Apprenticeship waiting times — SOLAS data via parliamentary question, Irish Examiner, 21 August 2026
- Ministerial school visits and capital funding — gov.ie, 22 May 2026
- CAO points movement — CourseCompass points comparison