The arrival of Covid-19 on Irish shores triggered a sea-change in how education was delivered here but over one year on, we asked how it has impacted student choices as they look to decide what courses to apply for through the CAO. The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation, says Mark Rogers, registrar at UCD. âLooking at the CAO first preference trends, students are very interested in subjects that have an interface between different disciplines: For example: Sustainability (DN240) offers modules in social sciences such as public policy and law as well as in engineering and science such as energy, climate change and environmental biology. Another area for the future is Computational Social Science (which can be selected via DN700) and [has] modules including programming and politics.â