Professor warns against medical course restrictions
Education Minister Noel Dempsey and Health Minister Micheál Martin set up a working group last September to examine the possibility of making medicine and other health science courses open only to graduates. The plan aims to reduce pressure on school leavers needing top grades in their Leaving Certificate for entry to these courses.
Such a move would be more counterproductive than beneficial, former dean of medicine at University College Cork Prof William Hall told medical, dental and nursing graduates yesterday. “Those who believe it would produce a better social balance among medical students are wrong. Only well-off families can afford to keep their children in third-level for the additional three or four years that graduate entry would require.”
