Universities fear they will have to restrict entry to more high-points courses on the basis of “random selection” this year due to record-breaking Leaving Cert results.
Results this year climbed to a new high with a sharp increase in the number of students securing top H1 grades. Senior university sources expect they will have to introduce more random cut-off points for entry into high-demand courses such as medicine, dentistry, law, pharmacy and science whenThis means that even though a candidate achieves the points required to gain entry to a course, there is no guarantee they will be accepted.
One senior source said they now expect to receive significantly more students with 600-plus points this year, which will make it harder to differentiate between top applicants. “That means more random selection for courses like medicine, which is devastating for candidates,” the source said.