College places on offer after upgrades

HUNDREDS of students could get offers of college places tomorrow after getting upgrades in Leaving Certificate results following appeals.

The State Examinations Commission has awarded improved grades in respect of 2,110 individual results appealed by almost 6,000 students who got their provisional results in August. The success rate is just over one-in-five of the 10,333 grades that were appealed and the outcomes have also been notified to the Central Applications Office (CAO) which has already logged acceptances by more than 45,500 of those who sought entry to third-level courses this year.

More than 400 students were given an offer of college places arising from upgrades this time last year, although in many instances students may decide to continue a course they have already started or to defer entry until the following autumn.

Meanwhile, institutes of technology are expected to back the awarding of bonus entry points for higher level Leaving Certificate maths following this week’s decision by universities to do so from 2012.

Six of the seven universities are introducing the system, which it was decided on Monday will add 25 points under the Central Applications Office (CAO) college entry system to the existing points available for students taking honours papers. University of Limerick already offers bonus points for higher level maths and its academic council will be asked to modify the scheme to match that now being introduced by other universities.

The move was welcomed by Tánaiste and Education Minister Mary Coughlan and is aimed at improving the uptake of higher level maths from a record low of less than one-in-six Leaving Certificate students this year.

The presidents of the institutes of technology (IOTs) will discuss the possibility of adopting a similar scheme next Tuesday, but a number of their academic councils have already indicated they would back a scheme that was uniform across the higher education system.

The issue of bonus points is not such a major topic for the IOTs because they offer very few high-points courses for which competition can be very heated in the universities, such as those in the health professions. All third level colleges were asked by Ms Coughlan to adopt a bonus points system for maths and doing so would be seen as more equitable for all students, regardless of course or college.

However, both the minister and the universities have stressed that bonus points alone can not improve maths performance or the uptake of the subject at higher level, with much depending on continuing reform of the school curriculum and teaching methods.