Maths is key to the subject

It seems that the declining numbers of students doing physics at Leaving Cert doesn't have to mean lower numbers at third level. Professor Martin Henry of DCU says "you don't need to have done physics for Leaving Cert in order to do the subject at university. If you like whatever science you have done, if you are not afraid of maths, if you are curious about how the world works, they you should enjoy doing a physics degree."

Professor Michael Redfern of NUI Galway says that the perception that physics is a difficult subject is given the lie by the pass rates, with only two or three students of the 350 first-years failing to pass first-year physics. However, physics is based on a "mathematical description of the world: maths is the language we work in. If you're hopeless at maths, clearly it's not for you."

The ITs teach the sciences on the basis that students haven't taken them to Leaving Cert, says Dr Tim Creedon of Tallaght IT. Often, a student will come in to do biology and switch to chemistry or physics. "It's very different to what they do in second level," he says. "There is a different excitement and reality at this level."