My daughter is doing her Leaving Certificate in June. What are the most suitable science courses for graduate entry to medicine in Ireland?
The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, recently announced that the majority of the graduate places to become available in medicine over the next few years will be provided by the new postgraduate medical school in the University of Limerick, with a small number also provided by the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. Candidates must hold, or expect to hold, a minimum second-class honours, grade one result in their first honours bachelor degree (NFQ Level 8) awarded, or equivalent. For candidates who meet this requirement, the Gamsat (Graduate Medical Schools Admissions Test - Ireland) will then be used as the sole instrument to select students for the programme. Application to sit the Gamsat test in Ireland can be made to the Australian Council for Educational Research www.gamsat-ie.org. Candidates may sit the Gamsat test at any test centre worldwide, or may submit the results of a Gamsat test already taken.
Your daughter might select to study a science degree as a means of consolidating her interest in the area of medical study, but it is not essential for entry to the postgraduate medical programme, given that all undergraduate programmes will be equally acceptable for qualifications purposes. By the time your daughter graduates, there will be 240 places available each year through this programme. My advice would be for her to select her CAO courses for this year, solely based on her current interest in the programmes. If she is genuinely interested in the degree programme and the college in which she is ultimately successful in acquiring a place, she will have the best chance of securing the second-class honours grade one result required to seek a place in the postgraduate medical programme.
What are the entrance requirements to Irish universities for students with the international baccalaureate certificate? My grandson will be sitting this in the next few years in the Netherlands and we were wondering how the qualification would transfer here. How does the points system here compare? And does the "free fees" apply? He has an Irish passport.
All Irish third-level colleges accept the international baccalaureate certificate for entry purposes. The institutes of technologies have a common agreed graded structure relating to all international qualification, including the international baccalaureate.
Each university also accepts the international baccalaureate and publishes details of the equivalences to the CAO points system on their websites. Trinity College Dublin, for example, requires six subjects with a minimum of three subjects graded at five at higher level. Students will be ranked based on their best six subjects from one sitting of the IB /Matriculation examination. Bonus points are not included in the calculation. Points for entry to Trinity College Dublin are calculated by the following equation: total points (IB) less bonus/42 x 600. If a course has a maths requirement at ordinary level, students must present maths methods. If a course has a maths requirement at higher-level, students must present mathematics at higher level. Maths studies satisfies matriculation requirements only.
Under Department of Education and Science regulations, for "free" fees, a student must have two things: EU nationality and EU residency for a minimum of three of the past five years. It would appear that your grandson would qualify for free fees. This does not cover the 800 charge for registration, examinations and student services.
Brian Mooney is the former president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors.
E-mail questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie
