Third level colleges reserve a small number of places specifically for mature students who want to participate in full-time day programmes. This means that you can compete for your place on a different basis to those who are just leaving school. For example, there are currently 800 undergraduate mature students at the University of Limerick. This number includes those undertaking courses which are full-time, part-time, distance and at outreach centres. Approximately 10 percent of each course allocation at Trinity College Dublin is made up of mature entrants but this varies from course to course. University College Cork meanwhile grants 15 percent of all full-time course allocation to mature students.

According to the latest figures published by the HEA (2007) third level colleges are still behind target in the number of mature students enrolled on their courses. Only 9.4 percent of all those on third level courses are mature students.