The first round of CAO points offers, published this morning, provides the usual mix of good and bad news for students. The good news is that points have fallen for some of the most popular courses in the State.
Most of the main courses in arts, business and law are down, reflecting a small drop in demand. Some of the best- known courses in the State - arts in UCD and business, economics and social studies at Trinity - have seen entry requirements drop. As a result, a great many students will be pleasantly surprised this morning.
The news is not good for everyone. The most striking feature of the CAO first round is the continuing surge in points for medicine/paramedical/nursing courses. Medicine at Trinity now requires 590 points for random selection. A similar pattern is evident across most health disciplines. Nursing, once a credible career option for the average student, is now reserved for those with a minimum of 360 points; some 415 points are required for nursing at UCC. As a result, the points for nursing have eclipsed those for many general arts, science and business courses.
To put these figures in context, it is worth bearing in mind that only a minority of all Leaving Cert students score more than 350 points. Last week, this newspaper disclosed how students have less than a one percentage point chance of gaining entry to high-points courses in medicine, dentistry, veterinary and pharmacy. Increasingly, first-time Leaving Cert students are being squeezed out by repeats and by students from Northern Ireland and Britain.
The real problem, however, is the acute shortage of places in medical education. The Republic provides just 300 or so places for a population of some four million. By contrast, Northern Ireland offers almost as many for a much smaller population. The Fottrell Report on medical education recommended a major increase in medical places, but the proposal has not yet been considered by the Cabinet. There have been suggestions also of a new gateway to medicine, with all students scoring over 450 CAO points qualifying for entry into an assessment process, the nature of which has still to be determined. There is talk that students would be subject to interviews and/or aptitude testing to assess their suitability. There are potential problems with this new route, which could be vulnerable to lobbying. For all its faults, the CAO process is immune from external influence. But the situation, where one needs staggering Leaving Cert results to enter medicine and related courses is surely unsustainable in the long run.