“Figures released by the Central Applications office (CAO) that reflect applicants’ final course choices as of 1st July indicate an increase in applications from 77,813 in 2020 to 84,526 (up 8.6%) this year. Forty-two thousand applicants amended their course application preferences during May and June …” (more)
[Brian Mooney, Irish Times, 13 July]
“Extra places in universities for medicine and pharmacy students will be included in a plan by Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris to create 4,500 extra third-level places. The news comes after it emerged that the points needed for some high-demand courses will rise as students who sat the written Leaving Cert last November take up places now offered to them …” (more)
[Brian Mooney and Cormac McQuinn, Irish Times, 9 July]
“The points needed in this year’s Leaving Certificate for some high-demand third-level courses, such as medicine and pharmacy, are set to rise, it has emerged. Seven-hundred 2020 Leaving Cert students, who sat written exams last November, were awarded places on Wednesday in higher-points courses than they were awarded by the Central Applications Office (CAO) last year …” (more)
[Brian Mooney, Irish Times, 7 July]
“Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of plans to reform the leaving certificate exams; her engagement with the State Examinations Commission in respect of same; and if she envisages a blended and or option for continued assessment to become a permanent choice for students …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 1 July]
“The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a further appeal by the Minister for Education over findings that the constitutional rights of two homeschooled students were breached by their exclusion from the 2020 Leaving Certificate calculated grades process …” (more)
[EchoLive, 28 June]
“Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the possible challenges facing leaving certificate students in accessing entry to universities outside of Ireland and the UK arising from the later than the usual date of issuing of leaving certificate results; the plans she has in place to ensure that concerned students will not be affected by the late issuing of their results; and if she will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 15 June]
“Second-level student leaders say teaching of first years in third-level colleges must start no earlier than September 27, following the announcement that Leaving Cert result won’t issue until September 3. Colleges have been reviewing their schedules and some, including UCD, DCU, UCC, NUI Galway and Maynooth University, have decided on a September 27 start for tuition, but details are awaited from across the sector …” (more)
[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 10 June]
“New college places to be created this year will be enough to offset the potential effect accredited grades and increased demand will have on this year’s race for courses. That is according to Education Minister Norma Foley, speaking ahead of the Leaving Certificate exams getting underway tomorrow …” (more)
[Jess Casey, Irish Examiner, 8 June]
“Tens of thousands of college applicants are due to receive CAO first round offers four days after the Leaving Cert results are released. The Central Applications Office (CAO) confirmed on Friday that offers will be made available online at 2pm on Tuesday, September 7th. Applicants will have just under a week to accept any offers …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 4 June]
“Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has said this year’s Leaving Certificate students will not miss out on CAO offers despite the delay in the date for results. The CAO and universities have all agreed to accommodate the later timeline, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland after it was announced on Wednesday that results would not be issued until September 3rd …” (more)
[Vivienne Clarke, BreakingNews.ie, 3 June]
“Tens of thousands of Leaving Cert students will have to wait until early September before receiving their results and CAO offers. Minister for Education Norma Foley has confirmed that students will be able to access their results online on Friday, September 3rd. It is likely that CAO round one offers for college applicants will follow shortly afterwards in the week beginning Monday, September 6th …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 2 June]
“Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the accommodation that has been made to ensure that students of the class of 2020 that never got to finish their courses, that received calculated grades in 2020, sat the leaving certificate in 2020 and are being expected to await the first round of CAO offers in September in 2021 to know their fate in relation to their preferred choice of university course thus forcing them to compete for limited places in specialist courses such as radiography or biomedical science with the leaving certificate class of 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 27 May]
“If you told teachers in 2019 that the Leaving Cert exams would be cancelled and they’d all be marking their own students, they might have laughed at you and then threatened to strike. But now, in the second year of the pandemic, teachers are – reluctantly, in many cases – set to mark their own students again …” (more)
[Peter McGuire, Irish Times, 25 May]
“The annual jamboree-cum-auction around third-level places is underway and a combination of the pandemic and Brexit has moved the goalposts spectacularly. A 31% increase in overseas applications, most of them from the EU means an extra 4,500 suitors for a place at an Irish college. That may not translate into students, as EU applicants’ final enrolment rate is generally below 50% …” (more)
[Irish Examiner, 16 May]
“Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will consider the plight of students who sat exams in November 2020 by accommodating these students’ course preferences ahead of the class of 2021 given the difficulties they faced, especially with some having had their calculated grades reduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 13 May]
“The arrival of Covid-19 on Irish shores triggered a sea-change in how education was delivered here but over one year on, we asked how it has impacted student choices as they look to decide what courses to apply for through the CAO …” (more)
[Peter McGuire, Irish Times, 11 May]
“A record 84,000 students have applied for college places in the coming academic year, according to well-placed sources, placing further pressure on the third-level entry system. Last February the Central Applications Office (CAO) received a record 79,000 applications for college places, a 9% increase on 2020 …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 10 May]
“I’m told there are record numbers of CAO applicants this year. What effect is this likely to have on CAO points requirements for third-level courses in 2021? The success or otherwise of applicants in securing a place in college in one of their top choices is determined by a number of factors such as the grades achieved by this year’s students, the number of places on individual courses and the demand for these places …” (more)
[Brian Mooney, Irish Times, 4 May]
“Accredited grades will be generated for all of this year’s Leaving Certificate students, even in subjects where they have not opted to receive them. The move is part of contingency planning to prepare for possible disruption to the June exams due to Covid outbreaks or other factors …” (more)
[Emma O Kelly, RTÉ News, 1 May]
“The strong grip that doctors’ families hold over places in medical schools is highlighted in a new analysis today. It shows how children of doctors disproportionately fill the limited number of places in university medicine courses. Among first-year students with one parent a doctor, 20% chose medicine and, where both parents are doctors, it rises to 33% …” (more)
[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 19 April]
