Q & A

Your questions answered by Brian Mooney

I received the following two related questions, which I will answer together, from parents of students currently taking post-Leaving Certificate courses. My son is doing a Fetac science course. Can he use this to go on and do a degree? My daughter is doing a nursing studies, pre-nursing, course. What are her chances of securing a place on a nursing degree?

As far as universities are concerned, some degree courses, such as nursing, are linked with specific Fetac awards and a small number of places are reserved for applicants from these courses. Contact the admissions office of the universities to see if they have this link or download the document at www.fetac.ie/hels/default.htm. Honours degree courses in universities generally require a minimum of five distinctions in Fetac awards. In practice, only students receiving eight distinctions stand a chance of gaining one of these sought-after university places through the Fetac route.

Institutes of Technology (ITs) have a good record of admitting applicants with Fetac awards. More than 90 per cent of those holding Fetac awards who were admitted to higher education courses in 2005 went to the ITs. Some of these were admitted onto four-year honours bachelor degree courses, some onto three-year ordinary bachelor degrees and the rest onto two-year higher certificate courses. The fact that the ITs have a ladder of progression means that students who secure a "two-one" in their higher certificate may progress to spend a further year securing an ordinary degree and then, if similarly successful, may progress to the final year of an honours degree. This means that there are two four-year routes to honours degrees in ITs - the ab initio route, where you register from day one on an honours degree, and the ladder route, which allows you to progress through a series of awards to an honours degree.

Recent changes to the admission process to ITs have resulted in confusion among students and some guidance counsellors, however. In 2005, the ITs decided to introduce a pilot scheme for mainstream entry for Fetac applicants. This meant a move away from the Higher Education Links Scheme, wherein specific Fetac awards led to reserved places on higher education courses, to a new scheme, which recognises the fact that Fetac (NCVA level two) courses have been placed at level five on the new National Framework of Qualifications.

In effect, for most level six (higher certificate) and level seven (ordinary bachelor degree) courses, ITs will recognise any Fetac level-five award as meeting the entry standard, although there may be a requirement that a particular subject is passed in the course - such as maths for those wishing to do engineering or science.

Students accepted onto these courses may progress, using the ladder system, to an appropriate honours bachelor degree. A common scoring scheme is used that gives 50 points for a distinction, 35 for a merit and 20 for a pass for each of the eight modules that make up a full award. Applicants are then ranked alongside Leaving Cert students for all available places. This new system may have the effect of squeezing many Leaving Certificate students out of popular courses in ITs, as they are unlikely to secure the points score in the Leaving Certificate that students operating under the new pilot scheme will secure.

In the case of ab initio level eight honours degrees, the majority of ITs maintain a link between the Fetac course and a particular higher education programme. For example, a Fetac computing course may be linked to an IT level eight computing degree and may not be considered for other level eight courses in that institute. Ab initio, level eight degree courses in ITs generally require a minimum of three distinctions in the Fetac award. This is to provide coherence with the requirement for two higher C3s in the case of Leaving Cert applicants.

Of the 14 higher education institutes offering nursing, 10 offer entry via the Fetac awards in nursing studies (DCHSN) or community and health services (DCHSX). In all cases, whether for a university place or an IT place, applicants require distinctions in five modules, which must include anatomy and physiology, introduction to nursing, and human growth and development or biology. Some ITs use the new scoring scheme to rank applicants along with Leaving Cert applicants; the rest, along with the universities, operate a quota system.

Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. E-mail questions to bmooney@irish- times.ie