Studying 'DownSouth' -Educational Opportunities in the Republic of Ireland

At the recent NI Schools' Careers Association (NISCA) autumn conference in the La Mons Hotel, Belfast Ms Mairead Murphy-Byrne took a very informative and engagaing workshop on the Central Applications Office (CAO) system of application. Her objective was to give careers advice and guidance personnel within schools an insight into the application process for third level institutions in the Republic of Ireland.
 Ms Murphy-Byrne has been working in EU admissions in third level education in the Republic of Ireland for over 5 years and qualified with an MSc in Education and Training Management from Dublin City University in 2007. Mairead is originally from Co. Monaghan and as a result has a particular interest in assisting students in NI and the Border counties with educational information provision. Mairead can be contacted at read more

http://www.studydownsouth/ is a working project. Estimated launch date August 2010.

A lack of tranparent information specifically targetting A level students has resulted in a growing trend of confusion amongst secondary school goers, their parents and guidance personnel in relation to the application process.  This has contributed to a continuing decrease in students from NI considering educational opportunities across a range of disciplines in locations such as Dublin, Sligo, Letterkenny, Galway and even further afield in Waterford, Cork and Limerick.

It was interesting that in the week before the conference SELB CASS were contacted by staff from University College Dublin (UCD), quite independent of M/s Murphy-Byrne's contribution, for permission to advertise their courses in the hope of attracting more students from NI to UCD! There is doubt that institutions in the South are concerned about the fall off in NI students.

Ms Murphy-Byrne in her presentation outlined the differences between various types of educational institutions in ROI. In the middle 90's when I was working full time in school career guidance, I read with interest how the Institutes of Technology were a unique sector with no comparable equivalent in the UCAS system and I would often have encouraged my sixth form students to explore their course potential. One of the main difficulties with the CAO system is that the closing date is not until February of the year of entry, later than UCAS and often students have put that much energy and effort into completing their UCAS forms that they are suffering from 'application fatigue' by the time CAO is introduced in Year 14;  far better to deal with both applications systems in the Easter term of Year 13 so that the students can appraise without any sense of panic, the advantages of BOTH systems.

One of the best ways of getting students to familaiarise themselves with the workings of both systems is to divide the class up into two groups; a UCAS group and a CAO group.  Using all available information sources, ask each group to look at critical criteria they would use when considering applications before engaing in a discussion of their findings e.g. cost of application and other fees involved; entry requirements; personal references; interviews; course choices and order of courses; offers; important dates for the diary etc.

There are a number of important websites for students to consult when they are conducting their research. These include

http://www.cao.ie/ (Application sytem explained and form completed online)
http://www.skoool.ie/
http://www.careerdirections.ie/
http://www.qualifax.ie/ (official site detailing course contents)
http://www.careersportal.ie/