Brian Mooney's Advice Centre:Just to explain the process for those of you who are applying to enter college in 2009: the higher education institutions in the Republic of Ireland have delegated the task of processing applications to their first-year undergraduate courses to the Central Applications Office (CAO). The colleges, however, retain the function of making all decisions on admissions. The CAO processes all applications and offers places to prospective students on instruction from the colleges.
The CAO will this year receive up to 70,000 applications from people of all ages, 65 per cent of whom will be taking the Leaving Certificate in 2009. The remaining 35 per cent will be made up of those under 23 years of age, who will have taken the Leaving Certificate in the past five years, and will be competing for places presenting the points they secured in any one sitting of the Leaving Certificate or its equivalent, plus those adults over the age of 23 who will be applying for places based on a range of other criteria laid down by individual colleges for mature applicants.
Within that 35 per cent, thousands of applicants will also compete for places presenting additional awards such as those secured through Post-Leaving Certificate courses, and awarded through the Further Education and Training Awards Council (Fetac).
When should I make my application?
You should make your application immediately, preferably online at www.cao.ie. Applicants making an online application may pay the application fee, which will remain at €35 until January 20th, 2009, using a credit card (MasterCard/Visa) or debit card (Laser). Alternatively, applicants may pay the application fee in advance, at a bank within the Republic using an Application Fee Payment Form, which is enclosed in the CAO application pack, which has been distributed to all schools and further education colleges in recent weeks.
Applicants paying between January 21st and February 1st, 2009 will pay €45, with those applying after February 1st (until the final date for applications - May 1st, 2009) will pay €70 on-line or €90 for paper applications.
If you are interested in applying for a place in college through the CAO, and are not currently in a school or college, you can acquire an application pack by contacting the CAO at Tower House, Eglington Street, Galway, Tel: 091-509800. Fax: 091-562344. E-mail: www.cao.ie
Mature applicants (i.e. those over 23 years of age, before January 1st in the year of admission seeking entry on grounds of mature years) and applicants applying for restricted courses must contact all the colleges they are interested in applying too, before making an application, as their applications will involve a range of assessment criteria other than Leaving Certificate points or their equivalent.
Why should I apply now, if I have not decided on my course choices?
By applying now you are simply registering your intention of applying for a college place in September 2009. Once you go online and register, you will receive your application number and password, which will enable you - at your leisure - to return to the CAO website and list your course choices, up until the February 1st, 2009 initial deadline.
TALKBACK
The scale of the economic crisis facing Ireland is placing an enormous strain on the fabric of our education system. Our priority as a nation must be to ensure that resources are directed towards those who will be ejected from the education system, for a variety of social and financial reasons, unless they are supported financially by the more privileged sectors of society.
Our response to date to the education and other cuts announced in the recent Budget does not indicate a willingness on the part of the many to make the sacrifices required to protect the most vulnerable among us from the effects of the economic downturn.
We, who have benefited from the sacrifices of those who built this State, will have to be prepared to accept real short-term cuts in our living standards, if Ireland is to avoid the destructive effects of social conflict that the production of a large pool of low-skilled young people, who have failed to achieve their educational potential, will give rise to.
As a teacher and public servant, I am proud to have dedicated my working life to public service. But I am also mindful that in the present world and domestic economic circumstances, I am in a very privileged and protected employment and pension situation. All of us employed within the Republic of Ireland, who hold public service jobs, must now stand up for and support our State, by showing the maximum degree of flexibility in our work practices and in the financial demands we make on the public purse.
If we want to live in a harmonious society, now is the time to accept the sacrifices that will secure all our long-term futures.
• Brian Mooney is a guidance counsellor at Oatlands College, Dublin and a former president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors
