Students in dark over medicine course entry requirements

STUDENTS beginning 5th Year, who want to study medicine, will return to school next week unaware if they can succeed without getting straight As in the 2008 Leaving Certificate.

An expert group, tasked by the Government to come up with alternative selection methods for the country’s medical schools, recommended earlier this year that those with at least 450 points and performance in a suitability test be considered.

The aim was to introduce revised entry methods from 2008, at the earliest, to relieve pressure on Leaving Certificate students who need top grades to qualify under the present system. The easiest medicine course to gain entry to this year was at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), where the equivalent of at least three A1s and three A2s in higher level subjects are required.

But Education Minister Mary Hanafin has asked the expert group, chaired by former NUI Galway president Professor Patrick Fottrell, to come up with more detailed proposals by the end of the summer. She asked the group to examine issues such as whether students, who pass an aptitude test, should still be picked based on Leaving Certificate results or if any other criteria should be considered.

There has been no announcement on the outcome of the deliberations yet but a Department of Education spokesperson confirmed that the expert group has already submitted its report to Ms Hanafin.

“It is with the minister and her officials, and the various options available are being considered,” she said.

It is believed that revised selection methods might be outlined next month, possibly for introduction for school leavers in 2008, but this could not be confirmed.

As well as medicine courses, other health science degrees remain among those demanding the highest Leaving Certificate points for potential entrants. Physiotherapy courses at four colleges had points requirements ranging from 540 to 585 this year, pharmacy points are between 545 and 555 and dentistry undergraduates need 560 or 565 points.

The 2002 Programme for Government set out to address the distortion of the points system caused by courses like these by introducing a common science degree as the principal entry method. In August 2003, former Education Minister Noel Dempsey suggested that entry to health science courses for school leavers be ended and only open to anybody with a primary degree.

However, this was amended by the Fottrell group in its interim report a year later, suggesting a mix of graduate entry and revised selection schemes for those coming straight out of school.

Ms Hanafin and Health Minister Mary Harney announced a package of measures to reform medical education last February, including the introduction of a graduate entry scheme for medicine from next year. The overall plan will see the number of places available to Irish and other EU students — capped at around 300 for more than 30 years — rise to 725 by 2010. The Government will fund the majority of these places by compensating the medical schools at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork and NUI Galway for the subsequent loss of fees from non-EU students.