Pointers towards the future

Your visit to Higher Options will provide you with an opportunity to ask questions about qualifications, career prospects, course content, work experience, entry requirements... If you are interested in arts, science, medical/paramedical/ veterinary courses or business/ commerce the following pointers may help you on your way.

Medical and paramedical courses

These courses feature at the top of most students' career wish list. Those who want to make a quick round of what's on offer should visit the following stands. Be warned, the points for all of these courses are very high and are unlikely to fall as the number of first-year places available is limited in all cases. Optometry - available in DIT Kevin Street only. Previously an advanced diploma, this will be a four-year degree for students beginning the course in 1998. Medical laboratory sciences - to practise as a medical laboratory scientist, it is necessary to have a degree in medical lab sciences. This may confuse students who find med lab listed in the certificates and diplomas in the CAO book. Students first do a three-year certificate and this is followed by a two year honours degree. The certificate is offered in DIT Kevin Street, Cork RTC and Galway RTC. Physiotherapy - four-year degree offered by UCD and TCD Radiography - UCD offers diagnostic radiography while TCD offers therapeutic radiography. Before you consider applying, you should find out the difference between the two specialisms. Read the career focus in next week's Education and Living supplement. Pharmacy - this four-year degree is offered by TCD only Medicine - offered by UCC, UCG, UCD, TCD, and the Royal College of Surgeons. Dentistry - offered by UCC and TCD Veterinary medicine - this five-year programme is offered by UCD only. Clinical speech and language studies - four year degree offered by TCD only. Occupational therapy - again offered by TCD only.

Science

Science covers a broad spectrum from human genetics to zoology to geology and physics. Some courses offer direct-entry into a particular specialism. For instance, it is possible to opt for earth sciences in UCG or UCC, industrial biochemistry in UL or aquaculture in Tralee RTC or Galway RTC. If you're sure of what you want to study, direct entry allows to begin work on your specialism from year one.

On the other hand, many students will not have made up their minds. They know they want to study science but are not quite sure where they want to end up. Common-entry science degrees are offered by UCD, DIT, TCD, UCG, and NUI Maynooth. UCC offers a degree in chemical, mathematical and physical sciences or biology and chemical sciences.

The important thing is to read the college prospectuses and look at the range of subjects offered. For instance, DIT's applied science degree does not include biology. All of the Irish universities, the regional technical colleges and the institutes of technology offer science programmes. These range from certificate to diploma to degree and students should bear in mind that certificates can lead to diplomas and degrees. Talk to college staff on the stands about possible progression if it's a degree you want. Of course, certificates and diplomas are valid qualifications in their own right.

Some programmes will include a work placement or, possibly, a period abroad. Again, this is the time to enquire.

Business/marketing/commerce There is an enormous range of business-type qualifications on offer ranging from commerce to business studies to marketing, accounting, financial and actuarial studies. This year, financial and actuarial studies in UCD topped the points league, requiring a formidable 600 points to gain a place, however DCU also offers a financial and actuarial maths degree and this registered a more manageable 520 points.

If you're not sure about which area you would like to specialise in, you could apply for a general business studies degree which will allow you to specialise later. For instance, if you opt for Business, Economic and Social Studies (BESS) in TCD, you will do a common first year which includes management, economics, political science, statistics, maths, computers and sociology.

Combining business studies with a language is a popular option for many students. The number of courses with a language content is increasing each year. And this is not just confined to the traditional European languages. For instance, UL now offers business studies with French, German, Spanish or Japanese while TCD offers a choice of business courses with French, German or Russian and UCD has just introduced a commerce degree with Swedish..

Of course, business-type qualifications are not just offered at degree level. The regional technical colleges and institutes of technology offer an excellent range of courses including professional accountancy programmes.

Athlone RTC's school of Business, Management and General Studies has a range of courses on offer, including programmes such as a national certificate in business studies, a national diploma in management studies, a bachelor of arts in accounting and finance and a bachelor of business studies in tourism and hospitality management.

In Galway RTC also there are courses at national certificate, national diploma and degree level, including an all-Irish course, an teastas naisiunta i staidear gno. Its business studies courses are designed to prepare students for careers in the accounting, administrative and management functions of industry, commerce, private sector services and the public service.

Arts

There is a wide selection of arts degree courses available to students in Ireland. The first quality or leaning a prospective arts student needs to have is an interest in the written word. "A student with an aversion to books would be in for an uncomfortable time in an arts course", as Trinity College, Dublin points out in its arts faculty prospectus. In general, arts students must be prepared to read about a topic, to consider the views of those who have written on it and finally to form their own opinions.

The characteristics common to the vast majority of arts courses, as the TCD arts prospectus explains, is that "they are about human life, human values and human achievements, often in widely differing times and places". UCC explains in its prospectus that "the special value of an arts degree lies in the provision of a broad general education and a training in the liberal arts, with emphasis on literacy, critical analysis and the use of source material whether in the form of books, periodicals, or data obtained by fieldwork and research".

All the universities have long-standing arts faculties, but arts courses are also now on offer in colleges such as St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, which has a very good choice of subjects, in St Angela's College Sligo, and in Mary Immaculate College Limerick which is linked to the University of Limerick.

In TCD there are three types of arts courses: the single honour course which is available subjects such as: biblical and theological studies, classics, early and modern Irish, history, English, philosophy, law, Germanic languages, psychology, and drama and theatre studies. The second type is a course that is a specially designed "package" of elements of different subjects either around a particular theme or around the development of a particular skill - as in the moderatorship in European studies, or in the moderatorship in computer science. And thirdly there is the two-subject moderatorship programme.

In UCD, students reading for the BA degree (Honours) by day take three subjects in their first year and one, two or three ( one major and two minor) subjects in the second and final years.

In UCG, the Faculty of Arts is the largest in the university, with more than 3,000 students, including a growing number of overseas students. Four subjects are taken in First Arts from the 21 subjects on offer. Subjects are organised in seven groups and not more than one subject can be taken from any one group.

In UCC, the primary degrees offered by the Faculty of Arts are a Bachelor of Arts degree; a Bachelor of Social Science degree; a Bachelor of Music degree and a Bachelor of Social Work degree.

The University of Limerick provides primary degrees in Applied Languages, European Studies, Law and European Studies, Public Administration and Arts (in Mary Immaculate College). "The design of the undergraduate programmes aims to equip graduates with suitable knowledge, skills and experience for living and working in Ireland or abroad in the context of diverse yet converging cultural, economic, legal, political and social systems in the European Union and wider afield.

St Patrick's College, May- nooth offers students a choice of courses which include areas such as English, music, economics, finance, French, history, Greek and Roman civilisation, anthropology and accounting.