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Fri 08 Aug 2003Institute courses 'being ignored'Taxpayers' money is being wasted on courses that students no longer want, according to the Institutes of Technology. As nearly 1,000 IT courses go begging for students on the CAO vacant places list, the institutes believe that the sooner they become autonomous from the Department of Education, the better.Some ITs, such as Letterkenny, Galway-Mayo and Dundalk, have been advertising vacant places in nearly all of their courses. Dundalk IT failed to fill 20 per cent of its places in round one of CAO offers. "This isn't an issue of our survival, but it is an issue of financial efficiency.