Leaving Cert students hoping to study medicine will no longer have to achieve the "perfect" Leaving Cert under plans detailed by the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, yesterday.
The reforms includes a new entry mechanism for undergraduate courses in medicine.
Additional places in postgraduate medicine are also being made available.
The key elements of the new package are:
• Introduction from 2009 of a new selection process for entry to undergraduate medicine.
This will be open to all students who achieve a minimum of 480 points in the Leaving Cert and meet matriculation requirements.
• An aptitude test that complements the Leaving Certificate by assessing a range of general and personal skills and competencies. This will be taken about six months before the Leaving Cert itself.
• Weighted credit to be given for performance in the Leaving Cert up to 550 points, with significantly moderated credit after that.
• The allocation of an additional 115 graduate entry places to UCD, UCC and NUI Galway and a further 65 places in the University of Limerick.
• The allocation of an additional 70 undergraduate places in TCD, NUI Galway and UCC.
The Leaving Cert will still be the main requirement but marks for the aptitude test will count for one-third of the overall score.
For students sitting the Leaving Cert in 2009, all those who meet the entry requirements and who achieve a minimum score of 480 points in a single sitting of the Leaving Certificate will be considered for selection based on a combined Leaving Cert/aptitude test score.
Credit for Leaving Certificate points will be limited from 550 points onwards, with 1 point added for each 5 points scored in Leaving Cert results. This will mean the maximum points which can be added to the candidate's overall score is 560.
The admission test will be based on one used internationally and will measure general and personal skills and abilities that are not directly assessed in academic examinations.
Minister Hanafin said "this new entry mechanism will have the effect of recognising a broader range of educational performance and reducing the negative educational impact of intense pressure on students for an exceptional Leaving Certificate performance".
This year, the University of Limerick and the College of Surgeons are providing 30 places each on the new postgraduate programme in medicine.
Further expansion will see the postgraduate course being introduced in three other medical Schools (NUI Galway, UCC and UCD) over the next three years.
Graduate entry programmes will commence in September 2008 at UCC and UCD, but only from September 2010 in NUI Galway.
When the reform package is fully implemented the new graduate entry stream will provide a total of 240 additional Irish/EU places in medicine.
Ms Hanafin said that the additional places on both the undergraduate and postgraduate courses will result in the number of Irish/EU places in medicine increasing by 420 and bring the total Irish/EU places available up to 725.
