Medicine: No need for Leaving Certs to change subject
She has yet to announce the details of the scheme designed to ease pressure on school leavers seeking limited places for undergraduate medical school places.
The minimum Leaving Cert points required for first round entry to any of the five medicine courses last month was 570 out of 600.
Ms Hanafin is likely to approve a system in which students with at least 480 points and who sit an aptitude test will be eligible for consideration. However, the five medical schools — University College Cork, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, NUI Galway and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland — have been reluctant to clear her plans that no extra credit would be gained by those with more than 550 points.
“I’m still looking for agreement from the universities. But there is a general acceptance that there will be a combination of aptitude test and Leaving Cert,” said Ms Hanafin.
“It should not in any way affect fifth year students’ choice of subjects,” she said.
Ms Hanafin also reaffirmed her opposition to any interview process to help select medical entrants, as she believes the country is too small and that such a system could become more about who a candidate knows rather than what they know.
Earlier this month, the head of University of Limerick’s new postgraduate medical school, Professor Paul Finucane, called for an interview system to ensure the best suited candidates were chosen.
The UL college and a postgraduate medicine course at RCSI began the country’s first medicine programmes solely for degree holders in recent weeks. They have enrolled 60 students this year, but the numbers will rise to 150 new students over the coming years, with another 90 to be taken in each year at one or more of the existing medical schools.
The aptitude test to be used to select undergraduate medicine students has also yet to be selected, although it will probably be similar to such tests used in other countries. The idea is to identify characteristics that would make candidates suitable as health professionals, rather than just their academic ability.
