How new college entry routes are changing the CAO

Final decision time for college options is fast approaching for this year's Leaving Cert students. Course choices through the Central Application Office (CAO) system must be completed by July 1st.

Those seeking places may think their chances of success will be based solely on whether their Leaving Cert results put them within the top points scores for a course. If, for example, there are 50 places on offer on the course you want, and your Leaving Cert result is among the top 50 applicants for the course, you would expect to be offered a place. That is incorrect.

Since the CAO was established in 1975 there have been a range of adjustments and tweaks to what was designed as a transparent gateway to third-level study, with applicants getting places based on their Leaving Cert score. Those changes have over time frayed the edges of the CAO college-entry system, so there now many exceptions to the rule of entry based solely on Leaving Cert points. For very good and necessary reasons, such factors as disability, disadvantage, age and sporting skill can now also play a role in college entry, creating exceptions to the points rule.

The upshot is, if you are applying solely on the basis of points, your chances of getting an offer have diminished significantly in the intervening years.

Over time government policy decisions, plus the colleges’ own initiatives, have reshaped the CAO application system to incentivise and give preference to a variety of different groups.

Mature applicants: Successive government have had a long-standing target of having 15 per cent of undergraduate intakes from mature (over-23) applicants. This target has never been achieved and the number of mature students has fallen in recent years, reflecting mass emigration among this age cohort since 2009, plus cuts in funding for adults in third-level education. Such students can now access a back-to-education allowance or a third level grant through SUSI, but not both.

Students with disabilities: Also in line with government policy and through the colleges' own initiative, a growing number of third-level institutions have adopted the Disability Access Route to Education (Dare) and Higher Education Access Route (Hear) schemes to support applicants with disabilities and those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to access college. Both schemes, which aspire to target 5 per cent of each year's intake to all courses, operate on the basis of reserved places ringfenced for those categories of applicants, which results in those who meet the criteria receiving offers at points scores on average 10 per cent lower than the published CAO points.

College access programmes: Colleges also have their own access programmes for students from less advantaged communities or from Deis schools who achieve average academic results from an overall national perspective, but excellent ones in relation to their peer group in their own community. These programmes have proven to be highly successful and many students on them have excelled academically with the supports.

Sports and art elite: For highly talented applicants in sports or art, who may represent their country or county, colleges offer "elite" programmes. Those who establish their elite status have a number of advantages. They may get CAO points concessions (up to 50 points) to get a place in their desired course. Colleges justify this concession because of the time commitment (and thus study time foregone) to achieve sporting or cultural success.

Elite students get preferential accommodation arrangements, professional support in their discipline, and support in navigating the academic calendar where participation in their activity clashes with study.

For the high quality, but not elite, sportsperson, colleges offer a range of similar supports, but they don’t get points concessions to secure a place; they qualify solely on their points or other qualifying criteria.

Other skills: Some courses are "restricted application" programmes – for example, art, music and medicine since the Hpat was introduced. These have a February 1st deadline, so colleges can assess applicants' suitability.

Once they have selected the total group who meet the suitability criteria, that cohort competes for the available places based on their assessed individual performance plus their Leaving Cert results.

UK students: Students from the UK are also treated differently by the CAO. An A level is currently awarded a maximum of 150 CAO points, so a UK

applicant, even when allowed to include an AS score (roughly, a one-year A-level, worth half a regular A-level score) alongside their traditional three A levels, cannot compete successfully for high points courses in colleges in the Republic.

To allow for this, some universities ringfence a number of places for such students, based on three A level results. This year all universities decided to incentivise UK students to apply to colleges in the Republic. With a target implementation in September 2016, CAO points for an A* (a higher A score) level will increase to 180, giving a student with three A* results 540 points. When combined with one AS score they could have enough points for any course in the Republic.

Assessment process: In the past two years, some institutions have begun to experiment with other criteria to assess suitability for entry. Trinity College, for example, has begun offering places based on criteria other than CAO points. Students make a written application followed by an assessment process to determine suitability for the particular course. This is similar to the application method used by UK colleges, and there are mixed feelings in the education community about the suitability of such a system for Ireland.

Some students, parents and guidance counsellors fear the possible unfairness of such an assessment process. Prof Patrick Geoghegan has defended the experiment for Trinity, saying it can be developed to ensure those with power and privilege cannot manipulate it in favour of their own children.

Institute of Technology Carlow has also recently published a plan to recognise out-of-school activity as legitimate criteria in addition to academic performance. In March, Carlow announced its new high-performance entry scheme, awarding up to 50 extra CAO points for students who excel outside the classroom in innovation/entrepreneurship, active citizenship or sport. Twelve places – four in each of the three categories – will be offered for 2015-2016.

According to IT Carlow, the scheme is the only one in the Republic to specifically reward applicants for achievements in entrepreneurship/innovation and outstanding citizenship, and it claims to be the only institute of technology to offer performance points for excellence in sport, which up to now has been the preserve of the universities.

System is diluted

Taken together, this series of exceptions to the original rules of the CAO, which were based purely on academic achievement, have now been diluted so

the system is quite a different one to that first envisaged. That’s not to say these alternative entry routes were not necessary or a good thing. But in a scenario with more demand than supply of college places, they have implications for those applying to go to college based on points alone.

The number of applicants trying to get a place in college is going to increase by 30 per cent in the next 10 years, based on population trends. This will greatly increase the intensity of competition for college places, unless the government significantly ramps up funding for undergraduate education.

There is a danger many young people with academic potential to excel in their chosen field of study will not now or in the near future be able to secure places in Irish colleges, and may not be able to go to college at all, or may have to consider studying at third level abroad. This is because there are not enough college places in the Republic, and of those places, a number on each course are ringfenced for targeted groups.

The government cannot duck this issue any longer and sustainable funding for third level is essential to enable the current CAO admissions system, with all its targeted preferential entry routes, to operate effectively, without seriously disadvantaging those applicants seeking places based solely on their academic performance in the Leaving Cert.