Change fails to widen medical school access

THE new selection system aimed at widening access to medical school for Leaving Certificate students has failed to significantly improve the chances of those with less than near-perfect results. As almost 47,000 people are offered college places by the Central Applications Office (CAO) this morning, school leavers competing for around 400 medicine degree places have for the first time been ranked through a combination of Leaving Certificate results and scores from an aptitude test taken earlier this year.

The system is designed to ease pressure on students to get top grades in all subjects for entry to five medical schools, with all students who sat the test in February and who have at least 480 points eligible for consideration.

But the lowest Leaving Certificate score of those being offered places today is 520 out of a maximum 600 points, meaning at least a handful of higher level As and B1s is needed for entry.

More than 3,100 CAO applicants listed medicine as their first preference this year, but only around 6% of all this year's Leaving Certificate students got 520 points last week.

There is an almost even mix of male and females being offered medicine; girls have usually been offered about 60% of places.

The points requirements for most degrees in arts, social science, science and teaching have gone up or are unchanged this year.

General arts degrees at five universities are up 5 to 25 points, compared to last year, with entry to general nursing degrees up 25 to 55 points from a year ago.

But points are down on most courses linked to the property and construction industries, with drops of 20 to 30 points for the main architecture degrees, and entry requirements for dozens of engineering and technology courses down 25 points or more.

Almost 20,000 people, of 74,000 applicants have not yet been offered a place by the CAO. Almost 6,500 places have already been filled from earlier CAO offers.

* The cut-off points for all CAO courses appear in the 16-page Choices for College supplement in today's Irish Examiner.