By Brian Mooney
There are just days left now before CAO applicants must finalise their course choices which will determine their input into their academic future post September 2020.
There has never been a more tumultuous year in the lives of any group of aspiring undergraduate students in the history of the State, and the outcome of the deliberations of these 70,000 young and not so young applicants are awaited with some trepidation by all colleges.
The last piece of the jigsaw for more than 3,000 CAO applicants fell into place on Friday last, June 19, when those students who sat the HPAT tests for medical entry received their results.
Many who are disappointed because their score would not have put them in place for an offer in any other year need to reflect if they still genuinely want to study medicine.
If they do, there is no way of knowing whether the normal cohort of international students who populate Ireland's medical schools will materialise in September, and if they don’t, whether the Higher Education Authority (HEA ) will increase the number of places on offer to CAO applicants beyond the 483 which have been offered in recent years following the implementation of the Fottrel report.
Anything could happen, and entry points for medicine could be lower, so follow the basic principle of listing the courses you really want, in the order you want them, on your CAO application. This principle applies to all disciplines and faculties.
Managing those final reflections
As I have stated in this column previously, the national course database qualifax.ie is the most reliable source of all programmes offered in Ireland at all levels, CAO, postgraduate, further education, etc. Don’t list any course on your application without having read the entire programme of academic content which is always made available by colleges.
In terms of occupational interest, careersportal.ie is the national standard for up to date information on the nature and functionality of the jobs and roles in our modern 21st century economy. All Irish employers who want to reach out to potential future hires do so through this website, and most students in our schools are familiar with both Qualifax and Careers Portal through the work of their guidance counsellors.
If any applicants are still a bit at sea as to what courses to list on their application by next Wednesday’s 5.15pm deadline, there are free interest inventories on both sites which will assist their final decisions.
Applicants might also consider logging on to myunichoices.com, which is an interest inventory used by guidance counsellors in many schools, to help students clarify their course options. The report will be available to you immediately after you complete the online questionnaire. You will find in on the myfuturechoices.com website, at a cost of £29.99 Sterling.
Will students be put off accepting a college place in August next because of the uncertainty currently associated with how third level programmes will be delivered in the coming academic year?
That is a question giving everybody associated with third level education in Ireland and internationally sleepless nights right now. If substantial numbers of CAO applicants decide for a variety of reasons to forego college in 2020, then it will lead to a funding crisis for the institutions involved, an unexpected reduction in CAO points requirements in 2020, with a corresponding increase in requirements in 2021 if they all seek to get back into the system after one year.
It may also lead to an increase in the numbers of those who sign up for programmes on MOOCs such as alison.com, an Irish based online course provider, or on the Open University. After all, if you are going to have to study online for a substantial portion of your time next year, why pay the costs associated with third level if you study the same content for a fraction of the cost?
But then again as Ordinary People proved, we leave home and go to college for lots of reasons totally unrelated to the content of our course choices. There is always the change of hooking up with someone who happens to have a holiday villa in Italy and a good wine cellar to boot.
Talking about Italy brings me to the issue of Irish students studying in EU universities through courses taught in English. What is the story relating to them at the moment? Whether students choose to study in Ireland or elsewhere in Europe, there will be online and blended learning this year as a central element of all teaching.
For those who have chosen to study in EU universities in growing numbers in recent years, the options of remaining at home and commuting to their university or IT for tutorials, practicals, and small lectures is not an option, so a more traditional college experience will be had by those who do cross the sea.
Surprisingly there are still some 200-plus degree programmes taught through English, still open to Irish applicants, in areas such as physiotherapy, primary school teaching, European law, European studies, creative business, medicine, dentistry, politics, pharmacy, nursing, and psychology. Details of all these courses listed above are on eunicas.ie
What about students who don’t yet feel ready to take on a third level degree or who won’t have the money to fund it due to lack of part time jobs this summer?
One of the greatest success stories of the Irish education system over the past 10 years has been the growth and expansion in terms of the diversity of programmes on offer of the further education system, offered in the form of Level 5/6 PLC awards.
All applications to further education courses are made directly to each individual college through its own website. Places are allocated on a first come, first served, basis normally following an interview which in the present environment could be online through Zoom, etc. The costs associated with most FE courses are minimal, although courses where students require equipment such as in beauty, etc, can be more expensive.
Most FE colleges will close for the summer next week at the end of June, but some places may become available in late August. Given the uncertainty associated with the nature of what third level may offer this year, there has been a significant increase in interest in FE courses among school leavers, so applying now would be advisable.
Studies by the Higher Education Authority published earlier this year show that students who first complete further education courses are significantly more likely to graduate from third level degree courses.The simplest way to check what progression routes are available in the CAO process upon completion of a PLC award is to use the search tools on the CareersPortal.ie website. Well over half of all CAO courses now have such links.
Solas, the umbrella body for the further education sector, says the latest data shows that up to 75 per cent of students with a foundation in a post-Leaving Cert (PLC ) course who move on to higher education complete their degree, which is why CAO colleges are now expanding these links. Expansion of these relationships between FE and HE is also highlighted in the current programme for Government.
By contrast, only 50 per cent of students who enter higher education directly with 300 CAO points complete their degree. About a quarter of first-year students in institutes of technology or Technological University Dublin are graduates from post-Leaving Cert courses.
