Choices at third level

With second-level schools returning after the Christmas break, the focus for most Leaving Cert students and their parents is …

With second-level schools returning after the Christmas break, the focus for most Leaving Cert students and their parents is fixed on the June exams. But January is also a critically important time for Leaving Cert students, who must now begin the process of planning career and college options, with the CAO deadline coming at the end of the month.

It is to be hoped that all students will give due care and attention to this process which could determine their career choice. The special College Choice supplement, published with this newspaper today, provides a comprehensive guide to the multitude of options now available. More than 700 courses are on offer in over 40 colleges, compared to less than 100 courses in a handful of colleges 20 years ago. Yes, CAO points remain very high for prestige courses such as law and medicine, but the majority of applicants will now secure one of their choices from the CAO. Over 40 per cent will secure their first choice while over 70 per cent will receive one of their top-three options. Broadly, a falling population means that fewer students are chasing more places at third level. And employment prospects for most graduates have rarely been better. The class of 2005 are in a better position than many before them.

The CAO process can, however, be fraught with difficulty. This was underlined yesterday when TCD was forced to defend its decision to reserve places on some courses for A-Level students from Britain and Northern Ireland. There have been complaints that the move discriminates against Leaving Cert students, making it more difficult for them to gain places at TCD. The university has denied this.

TCD introduced the reserve system after weighing the relative merits of A-Levels against the Leaving Cert. TCD acknowledged that it was much easier for A-Level students to secure entry. Almost 20 per cent of A-Level students, for example, secure over 550 CAO points, compared to about two per cent of Leaving Cert students. TCD decided to reduce the number of CAO points given for each A-Level. Under pressure from interests in Northern Ireland, however, it decided to introduce the reserve system.

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The university was clearly well-intentioned in attempting to establish a level playing field for all applicants. But the manner in which it introduced the new system left it open to the charge of being discriminatory. A commitment to reserving places within a "closed system" seems out of kilter with a CAO system which puts a premium on transparency and openness. It could also open a kind of Pandora's Box, where individual colleges can reserve places on certain courses, as they are free to do under the CAO. Instead of acting alone, TCD might have been better advised to work on a new formula for A-Level applicants in co-operation with the other third- level colleges and with the CAO. That approach might also have proved less controversial.